Ringo Starr admits: 'I have found God'
Ringo Starr pictured with wife Barbara Bach at the Grammy Awards. Photo: Getty Images
Wednesday February 03 2010
Ringo Starr, the Beatles’ drummer, has admitted he has "found God" after taking what he described as a winding life of enlightenment.
The reformed rock legend, who turns 70 in July, admitted he had lost his way when he was younger, first as a Beatle then later after the group broke up.
He experimented with LSD and marijuana when he was a Beatle in the 1960s, then later in the 1970s suffered alcohol and cocaine problems.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Starr, who is now a teetotal and has quit his 60-a-day cigarette habit, said that religion was one of the most important aspects in his life.
"I feel the older I get, the more I’m learning to handle life. Being on this quest for a long time, it's all about finding yourself," Starr told the paper at a Grammy Museum event in Los Angeles.
"For me, God is in my life. I don't hide from that ... I think the search has been on since the '60s.
“I stepped off the path there for many years and found my way [back] onto it, thank God.”
Starr, who is a vegetarian, is married to former Bond girl Barbara Bach and now splits his time between homes in Los Angeles, London and Monaco.
In the interview he said it was far easier approaching 70.
"Forty was: 'Oh, God, 40!',” he said.
"There's that damn song, 'Life Begins at 40.' No, it's not so big anymore.
“I am nearly 70, and I'd love to be nearly 40, but that's never going to happen.”
- Andrew Hough
© Telegraph.co.uk
