Pete Best, The Beatles’ Original Drummer, Announces Retirement After a Life Beyond Beatlemania
Pete Best, the original drummer for The Beatles and a pivotal figure in the band’s pre-fame journey, has officially announced his retirement from live appearances and performing.
The news came via a heartfelt social media post from Pete’s brother Roag Best, who wrote: “What an absolutely wonderful ride we’ve had. However, everything comes to pass. My brother Pete Best has announced today he is retiring from personal appearances and performing with the group.”
Pete added simply: “I had a blast. Thank you.”
Best’s drumming days stretch back to 1960, when Paul McCartney invited him to join the fledgling band. From Hamburg’s gritty clubs to Liverpool’s raucous scene, Best manned the kit during The Beatles’ formative grind. But in 1962, just as fame was on the horizon, he was let go—replaced by Ringo Starr on the advice of manager Brian Epstein.
In a 2020 interview with The Irish Times, Best recalled: “When I got back home and I told my mother what happened, behind the sanctuary of the front door, I cried like a baby.” Despite the heartbreak, he chose not to live in the past. “There came a period in my life when I was like, to hell with what happened yesterday—it’s about today and tomorrow.”
For years, Best carried the weight of being the “Beatle who was left behind” but transformed it into a career of his own, touring globally and finally earning admiration for his drumming on his own terms. “I haven’t talked about it much. I just perform on stage and let the audience make up their mind. And the consensus is: yeah, you’re a great drummer, Pete.”
In 2024, he and his family opened The Casbah Coffee Club—an early Beatles venue in Liverpool—as a Beatles-themed Airbnb, offering fans a literal night in the history of rock and roll.
Pete Best’s retirement marks the closing of a unique and often overlooked chapter in Beatles history. He may not have been part of their chart-topping run, but he helped lay the foundation—and for that, fans around the world salute him.
Thank you, Pete. You were there at the beginning, and your beat lives on.
