Why Ringo Starr once walked out of Elton John concert with Elton’s mum
16 January 2025, 15:21
The Beatles star recently revealed he and Sheila Eileen Dwight once left a show by the ‘Crocodile Rock’ star early.
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Ringo Starr once left an Elton John concert early along with Sir Elton’s own mum.
The ‘Yellow Submarine’ singer and Elton’s mother, Sheila, made the decision after they realised neither of them knew the songs Elton was playing at the show.
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Ringo shared this story of when he and Sheila walked out of one of Elton’s concerts in a recent interview with The Times.
The Beatles star, who released his 21st studio album Look Up last Friday (January 10), was discussing why he won’t be playing many of his new tracks on his next tour when he shared the shock anecdote.
“In the late 90s, I would put in, like, two or three from the new album, and you could feel the room empty. It happens to everybody,” Ringo admitted.
As an example of how playing new music can be a turn off for fans, he referenced the time he attended Elton John’s famous 1975 Wembley Stadium show, where he played the entirety of his new album Captain Fantastic.
Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was Elton’s ninth studio album, and was released in May 19, 1975.
Elton’s mid-summer music concert took place on June 21, meaning friends, family and fans had less than a month to get familiar with all of its new tracks before the concert.
“I was with his mother,” Ringo explained. “He came on and said, ‘I’m only going to do the new album.’ Me and his mother left after three tracks because we didn’t know them.”
To be fair to the ‘Candle in the Wind’ singer, Sir Elton did play several of his more established hit songs such as ‘Rocket Man’ and ‘Benny and the Jets’, and covered several Beatles tracks in addition to performing the whole of Captain Fantastic at the concert.
But sadly, the now nearly 50-year-old concert’s insistence on focusing on his new work in the middle of the show wasn’t able to keep Ringo and Sheila watching that day.
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