Sobriety is a challenge for anyone living with addiction, so Sir Ringo Starr knows how lucky he is.
Starr, who celebrated his 85th birthday on Monday, July 7, was in a reflective mood as he looked back on his 37 years of sobriety.
The former Beatle was speaking to reporters at his annual “Peace & Love” birthday celebration in Beverly Hills when he made the announcement and shared how his life changed after giving up alcohol.
Surrounded by his musician friends, including Jackson Browne, John Desmond of The Doors and Colin Hay (Men At Work), Starr shared his sobriety journey.
“Well, I ended up in a rehab because I was not treating myself or anyone around me with any respect,” he said, as reported in People magazine.
“It was all about me, and I came out, and I haven’t had a drink since. Thank the Lord.”
In 1986 both he and his second wife, former Bond girl and actress Barbara Bach, entered treatment together to deal with their substance and alcohol addictions.
Starr has previously discussed his difficulties with addiction before, and in 2015 told the Times of London, he could not remember much of the 1970s or 1980s.
“I didn’t notice . . . Some of those years are absolutely gone,” he told the newspaper.
Thankfully, he lives a healthy lifestyle and has been a vegetarian for several decades, which helps explain his youthful outlook on life.
In the lead up to his milestone birthday, Starr told the New York Times that he doesn’t feel a day older than 24 years old and still sees a young man when he looks into the mirror.
“It blows me away,” he said, as per the newspaper.
“I look in the mirror and I’m 24. I never got older than 24.”
The Liverpool-born drummer continues to keep a tour schedule that would exhaust musicians half his age and will take his live act, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, on tour through the United States later this year.
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