Famed Beatles drummer and one-time Pizza Hut spokesperson Ringo Starr has admitted he’s never eaten pizza before.
The veteran musician made the somewhat surprising confession while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his 21st studio album, Look Up. As part of his chat, Kimmel asked Starr to set some rumors about himself straight. First on the list was the claim that Starr had never eaten pizza.
“I’ve never had a pizza,” Starr confirmed, as the audience expressed their shock at the news. “Or a curry.”
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“I’m allergic to several items,” Starr continued. “With pizza, you don’t know what you’re putting in it half the time. Or the curry. So I’m strict with myself since it makes me ill immediately.”
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“I used to think you had the greatest life, and now I realize mine is better,” Kimmel joked in response. Added Starr: “Yours is better because you’ve had a pizza.”
Starr’s need to abstain from pizza also goes hand-in-hand with his longtime vegetarianism, but is made all the more surprising given his role as a one-time spokesperson for noted restaurant chain Pizza Hut.
Appearing in a 1995 ad campaign for the chain, Starr promoted Pizza Hut’s newly-introduced stuffed crust as part of a 30-second spot which saw him teasing a reunion from The Beatles. The ad’s punchline sees Starr joined by members of The Monkees instead (“Wrong lads,” he quips), with all four musicians appearing to bite a piece of pizza crust-first. We now know, however, that Starr doesn’t actually follow suit.
The former Beatle’s latest record arrived on Jan. 10 as his first full-length release since 2019’s What’s My Name. Bolstered by guest appearances from Alison Krauss, Molly Tuttle, Lucius, Larkin Poe, and Billy Strings, the country record has so far been a commercial success. Look Up debuted on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales chart at No. 7, charted in the top ten of Indie Store Album Sales (No. 2) and Top Rock Albums (No. 7), and also gave Starr a career-best peak of No. 27 on the Top Country Albums.
“I did love country music before I was in (The Beatles),” Starr recently told Billboard. “We got plenty of it in Liverpool, because the lads who were in the merchant navy would bring not only rock and roll over, but country — and when country bands went on tour in England, they always played Liverpool.”
