Would The Beatles have reunited if John Lennon had lived? Ringo Starr opens up

21 September 2026, 10:52

The Beatles never had a full reunion after their break-up.

After The Beatles broke up in 1970 they never had a proper reunion.

Soon after the split, John Lennon would collaborate with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and George and Ringo worked together.

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By the middle of the decade, Paul McCartney was also working with Ringo, but Lennon had gone into semi-retirement.

John and Paul reconciled but never formally collaborated again, with a bootlegged jam session from March 28, 1974 the only document of their reunion.

After John was murdered in 1980, there were occasions where the surviving Beatles got in a room together to record.

And in 1995, Paul, George and Ringo finished off John's demos 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love' for the Anthology project

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Harrison died in 2001. Paul and Ringo have collaborated since then and later finished off a third Lennon demo 'Now and Then' that the "Threetles" had failed to complete back in the mid-90s, with it being released as the final Beatles single in 2023.

But many fans have wondered if The Beatles ever would have properly reunited as the Fab Four had John not been murdered.

"I do think we possibly would have got together sometime from, you know, John leaving us to now, if we were all still around, you know," Ringo told Page Six.

"And George, you know, I miss George."

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Ringo added of the relationship The Beatles had: "I'm an only child. I had three brothers. And you know, brothers up rows and you know little get-togethers, and then little get-aparts.

"And for me, it was great. And musically it was dynamite, which it still is out there. You know, the chance to play that. Right. And you know, it’s all happened in eight years."

Starr confirmed that he and Paul are still in contact and they still speak a couple of times a month, and they'll make a point of spending time together when he's in England.