The sons of three Beatles legends teamed up for a new song, leaving fans to wonder why a fourth member wasn’t included.
On June 16, Zak Starkey, the drummer son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr, revealed that he collaborated with Sean Ono Lennon (the son of late Beatles singer-songwriter John Lennon), and James McCartney (the son of Paul McCartney), to record the song “Rip-Off”.
Starkey, 59, posted a teaser for “Rip-Off” to Instagram and noted that Shaun Ryder, James McCartney, and Sean Lennon provided vocals for the Mantra of the Cosmos track. The band is Starkey’s supergroup that includes Ryder and Bez from the Happy Mondays and Andy Bell from Oasis.
While fans were thrilled for a team-up of three Beatles sons, in an interview with The Telegraph, Starkey shut down the suggestion that the fellow Beatles offspring were now in his band or that the song was a segue for a next generation Beatles reunion.
“No it’s not,” the longtime The Who drummer said. “It’s like Mantra of the Cosmos with them in it. It’s Sean of the Cosmos and James of the Cosmos, it’s still my band.”
Starkey further dismissed the idea that he needed to invite Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison, to join in. “No I don’t. Why do I?” he asked.
This isn’t the first time Starkey has shut down the idea of a supergroup featuring four Beatles sons. In 2023, he posted an Instagram photo after hanging out in New York City with Lennon and noted that it was fun getting “to know each other a bit.”
But when a fan suggested in the comment section that the two artists form a new musical project with George Harrison’s son, Dhani, Starkey explained why their common bond didn’t automatically equate to musical chemistry.
“If we had spent 3 years sleeping on flea infested mattresses in the back room of a Hamburg club it might have chemistry,” he wrote, per NME. “But we have been swaddled in silken robes in houses so big that it’s too far to go and make a piece of toast – seen?”