Why This One-Time Beatle Said He “Died” After His 30 Seconds of Fame With the Fab Four

In the summer of 1964, drummer Jimmie Nicol learned the hard way that landing a gig as the fifth member of The Beatles might be tough. But swallowing the realization that this star-studded opportunity wasn’t going to last forever was downright devastating. Still, for those ten glorious days, Nicol experienced something unlike he had ever had before.

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Nicol’s brief tenure as a Beatle came on the heels of Ringo Starr’s diagnosis of and hospitalization for severe pharyngitis. Doctors admitted Starr the day before the band was to take off on a world tour. Not wanting to disappoint fans or miss out on money, The Beatles obliged when manager and producer Brian Epstein and George Martin, respectively, told the lads that they had found Starr’s substitute.

The man tasked with taking over Starr’s spot behind the kit was already a prolific drummer, having played in multiple bands, including The Cabin Boys, The Shubdubs, and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. When Starr recovered, he returned to the lineup, and Nicol was sent home with 15,000 pounds and a watch with a special engraving on the back that read, “From The Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmie—With appreciation and gratitude.”

Jimmie Nicol Struggled to Adjust After His Stint With the Beatles

Jimmie Nicol knew he was receiving a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when George Martin asked him if he would fill in for Ringo Starr while the actual Beatle was sick in the hospital. Nicol also knew that it wouldn’t last forever. However, he did hope that he would have a stronger foundation to stand on when it came to pursuing his own musical career post-Beatles. He was wrong.

Nicol declined the offer to rejoin the backing band for Georgie Fame, The Flames, under the assumption that his thirty seconds of fame with The Beatles would be enough to catapult his career as a frontman. So, he put his own band, The Shubdubs, back together. Nicol’s band failed to gain any real commercial traction, and by the 1970s, he all but disappeared from the public eye.

Later, Nicol told Mojo magazine that being Starr’s substitute was “the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then, I was quite happy earning 30 or 40 pounds a week. After the headlines died, I began dying, too,” per Kenneth Womack of Penn State. 

The fact that at the time of this writing, we still don’t know whether Nicol’s comment was literal or metaphorical is a testament to how true it really is. As far as we can tell, Nicol hasn’t been confirmed dead, but he also hasn’t been in the public eye since the early 2010s. In a way, Nicol’s story is a true Icarus tale. There wasn’t a hotter sun to fly close to than The Beatles, and Nicol’s wings just couldn’t handle the heat. And as the adage goes, the higher you fly, the harder you fall, and that was certainly true for this forgotten fifth Beatle.

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