Congratulations to Ringo on his induction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Ringo's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech

Thank you. My name is Ringo and I play drums. I want to thank Paul for all the great things he told us. Some of them are true. You know, it's a great honor to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was doing the press and they're all saying, "Well, why did you wait so long?" It has nothing to do with me. You have to be invited. But anyway, apparently I'm invited and I love it. I also love that I got lucky that it's actually in Cleveland, and I'll tell you why. When I started playing, I was playing in skiffle bands, sort of house party bands, and we had a guitarist and the first band I was in was really great. I had a snare drum and Roy, the bass player, had a tea-chest bass with a hole in it and strings.

And so we're playing this skiffle music, playing anywhere we could. And then I joined a couple of other bands and I always wanted to play with great players and I kept moving up a little; up to the next band. Of course, I did end up with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and when I joined them, we were still a bit of a country-folk band, and the guitarists in those days -- this is a nice one for all you big-shot guitarists with the big amps -- we played the Cavern Club, which was a jazz club in Liverpool. And he brought a radio to plug into so we'd be electric. And we got thrown off. "Get out of here! That's not quite jazz." Anyway, we started off with a radio; the first amp we had. Things got going a lot better and we ended up playing a lot in Liverpool and around Liverpool. We never really made it anywhere else, but while that was going on, I was working in a factory. [Responds to Paul McCartney jokingly tapping on his watch] After the things I've sat through tonight. Blah blah blah. I got some stories.

I was working in the factory and playing at night and every Sunday, you know we lived in England, we only had the BBC. There was a small country in Europe called Luxembourg...very small. Population of about six. And for some reason, they had the biggest radio master. And they bought the Alan Freed Rock & Roll show. And for the first time I heard. . .well, I have to backtrack now to '55. . .Bill Haley was my hero. . .he was like the first one. Elvis came in.

But anyway, I'm listening to this guy on a Sunday at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and I hear Little Richard, first time ever. I hear Jerry Lee Lewis. And I heard rock & roll music, because we weren't getting a lot of that stuff in England, and it came from this very small country. So 4 o'clock every Sunday, Roy and I would go to his house and turn on the radio and Alan Freed would introduce us to so many great rockers. And when I was a teenager, once. . .we played Little Richard, "Shag on Down to the Union Hall." Means nothing to you but to us, it's very meaningful. We couldn't believe we could hear this guy on the radio! Shag on down to the Union Hall! That seems a good place to go!

Thanks to: rollingstone.com

Paul's induction speech for Ringo:

OK. Ringo Starr was born in Liverpool at a very early age, and he had a hard childhood. Real hard childhood, but he had a beautiful mom, Elsie, and a lovely stepdad Harry. Both of them had real big hearts, beautiful people, and they loved music. So at some point during this difficult childhood, Ringo got a drum. Ringo got a drum! And that was it. He was now a drummer.

Later on he joined a group called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. And we saw these guys when we were out in Hamburg, we were playing out there. And Ringo was like a professional musician. We were just like, slamming around and doing stuff, but he had a beard -- that's professional. He had the suit. Very professional. And he would sit at the bar drinking bourbon and seven. We'd never seen anyone like this. This was like, a grown-up musician.

Anyway, we got friendly with him, and he used to come in late night when we were playing, and he requested a couple of songs, so we got to know him. And one night our drummer then, Pete Best, wasn't available, so Ringo sat in. And I remember the moment. I mean, Pete was great, and we had a good time with him. But me, John and George, God bless 'em, were on the front line singing, and now behind us we had this guy we'd never played with before, and I remember the moment when he started to play - I think it was Ray Charles, "What'd I Say," and most of the drummers couldn't nail the drum part, it's a little bit [sings a bit of it]. It was a little difficult to do, but Ringo nailed it. Yeah -- Ringo nailed it! And I remember the moment, standing there and looking at John and then looking at George, and the look on our faces was like, fuck you. What is this? And that was the moment, that was the beginning, really, of the Beatles.

Anyway, then we started this great journey for these four guys from Liverpool who were . . .we just set off on their journey. We did ballrooms and clubs around England, and we got a little work in Europe, and then we eventually came to America. And here we were, we were staying in rooms together. And I wasn't a sheltered kid, but I just had my mom and dad growing up and my brother. So I was staying in a hotel room with a strange man. This really brought us together. We lived like in each other's pockets, virtually. But it was a beautiful thing, a wonderful thing. Eventually we got on The Ed Sullivan Show, and we got really famous. It was just so beautiful. As all the other drummers say, he just is something so special. When he's playing behind you, you see these other bands, they're looking around at the drummer, like, is he going to speed up, is he going to slow down? You don't have to look with Ringo.

It's a great honor for me to be able to induce him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland tonight!

Thanks to: Rollingstone.com