Pete Best is putting his drumsticks down for good.
The original drummer for The Beatles, 83, is retiring after a decades-long career in the music industry.
“Well what an absolutely wonderful ride we’ve had,” Best’s brother Roag announced on X on Saturday. “However, everything comes to pass. My brother Pete Best has announced today he is retiring from personal appearances and performing with the group. His daughter has informed me it’s due to personal circumstances.”
The drummer himself, whose real name is Randolph Peter Scanland, reposted the message, writing: “I had a blast. Thank you.”
Best played with The Beatles from 1960 to 1962. However, right before the band — which included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison — catapulted into stardom, he was replaced by Ringo Starr, 84.
Best spoke candidly about working with the group while on “Late Night with David Letterman” show in 1982.
“I first met the guys when they opened my mother’s club The Casper in 1958, when they were known as The Quarrymen and there was John, George and Paul and another guy called Ken Brown but we needed a group to open the club,” he revealed about how he met his fellow bandmates. “I was about 16.”
Host David Letterman, 77, then asked Best if he had any inkling he was being replaced. He, in fact, wasn’t aware of what the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, had in mind.
“No, that was the amazing thing, Dave,” he reflected. “When the incident happened, it happened completely out the blue. There was no forewarning. I was called into Brian’s office and he turned around and I could tell that he was agitated, simply by the fact that he was pacing up and down and biting his fingernails.”
“After about three or four minutes he turned around and said, ‘Pete, I’ve got bad news for you.’ He said in a nutshell, the boys want you out and they want Ringo Starr in. I was completely shellshocked by this, Dave,” Best continued. “I couldn’t get my mind together or into perspective.”
He didn’t end up talking to any of the group members following the news.
“After I was kicked out, very shortly after that, I joined a group called Lee Curtis and the All-Stars and on two occasions, I played on the same bill as them.”
The band didn’t speak to Best either time.
“Nothing was ever mentioned,” he revealed. “There was no acknowledgment. Stony silence.”
Best and Starr were also friends before the drummer took his spot.
“They caused me a lot of hardship, grief, financial embarrassment,” Best admitted. “But I persevered with my own lifestyle and I was strong enough in character to turn around and say, ‘Okay no matter what happened in the past let’s forget about it.’ I’ve managed to retain my identity in my own sweet way.”
The musician went on to tie the knot with his wife Kathy in 1963, and the couple shares two daughters.
In 2020, Best once again reflected on being let go by The Beatles.
“We were rockers, we were little hardies, we could handle ourselves. But when I got back home and I told my mother what happened, behind the sanctuary of the front door, I cried like a baby,” he shared with The Irish Times.
“They made a decision as young men which was safeguarding their future. Okay, it could have been handled better. I was the fall guy for it, I suffered, but I’m not holding them to task over it,” Best reiterated. “If I’d have been in the same situation and I was another member of the band, maybe I’d have been one of the bad guys.”
The rocker said he has “no regrets.”
Best added, “I think I’m a lucky guy. I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved as a person, of the examples I’ve set to people to get on with your life, to pick yourself up. I’ve been an inspiration. And I’m proud of that.”
