The English musician, Pete Best is most famed as the former drummer of the rock band, “The Beatles”. He was with the band from 1960-1962 before he was unexpectedly fired. Nonetheless, a year after his dismissal he got married to Kathy Best who has been his wife for over half a century, and together they have birthed 2 daughters and have 4 grandchildren.
From Pete’s early life down to his marriage, kids, and career with “The Beatles”, here’s all to know.
A Brief Biography of Pete Best
Pete Best was born Randolph Peter Best on November 24, 1941, in Madras, India and he’s 83 years old at the moment. From established records, he was raised in Liverpool, North West England alongside his brothers Rory Best. However, his roots also cut across Ireland as his grandfather is from Dublin.
Pete’s father, John Best, who came from a family of Liverpool sports promoters was an Irish soldier who unfortunately died in the 1940s when Pete was just a baby. As such, he was largely raised by his half-Irish mother, Mona Best who owned the Casbah Club in Liverpool, this was also where “The Beatles” played their first gigs.
After Pete completed high school with very good grades, he received an opportunity to study at a teacher’s training college but decided to take up his musical passion instead.
He Has Been Married to Kathy Best For Almost 6 Decades
Pete Best has been long married to Kathy Best, a Woolworth sales clerk. The pair first met in the ’60s, during one of Pete’s gigs while he was with “The Beatles” and soon became friends. Their friendship later blossomed into a relationship that saw them get married in 1963, a year after Pete was fired from “The Beatles”.
Pete and Kathy have managed to maintain a beautiful marriage since then which has seen them become parents of two daughters and proud grandparents of four grandchildren.
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Pete Best was Fired From The Beatles in 1962 Here’s Why
As you would easily find, Pete Best joined “The Beatles” formerly known as “The Silver Beatles” in 1960 after his audition. He became the band’s original drummer and played alongside John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. With the group, they recorded success in Liverpool and Hamburg and was with them when they secured a record contract with EMI that would later make them famous. However, in 1962, after two years with the group, Pete was unexpectedly fired and this brought him to the lowest point of his life. He cried like a baby after telling his mother what happened and even attempted suicide by gassing himself but was saved in time.
Despite his contributions to the group, no one was able to give a straight answer for forcing him out of the group. Nonetheless following several interviews, we garnered many reasons why he was sacked.
First, other band members including Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison wanted him out and had managed to convince their manager, Brain Epstein to fire him. Though their reasons were not started initially, Neil Aspinall, the band’s road manager later uncovered that the 3 wanted Ringo Starr, the former drummer of “Rory Storm and the Hurricanes” to be a part of them.
Aside from this, The Beatles Anthology captured that Pete had a different personality from other members and would not hang out with them. After gigs, he would prefer his alone time to hang out with the others. Consequently, they felt he was pulling away from them and somewhat didn’t complete the band. Again, they didn’t think his drumming was up to scratch as noted by Irishtimes.
The band’s producer, George Martain noted that at the time they signed with EMI, he wanted the band to get a hotter drummer. He said;
I decided that the drums, which are really the backbone of a good rock group, didn’t give the boys enough support, They needed a solid beat.
What Has Pete Best Been Up To?
First off, when Pete left the group he kept his distance from the band as he felt hurt and embarrassed. He disclosed that he stayed at home for two weeks as he didn’t know what to do. He was later offered a job by his former manager, Epstein but didn’t show and hinted that there was no point in accepting an offer from someone who didn’t want him.
Pete took a part-time job with the food industry and was loading bread into the back of delivery vans. After some time, he started working as a civil servant with the Garston Jobcentre in Liverpool. There, he was promoted to an employment officer and later became a training officer. A few years later, he started writing songs for some bands, giving interviews to the media about his time with “The Beatles” and also became a technical advisor for the television film, Birth of the Beatles.
In 1988, 2 decades after he took a break from show business, Pete performed alongside his brother, Roag at the Beatles convention in Liverpool. He later got back into the musical industry and toured with “The Pete Best band.
Through the years, Pete noted that he has no regrets despite not being part of one of the biggest bands, he thinks he’s the lucky guy and has become very proud of all that he has achieved as a person. He was inducted into the All You Need is Liverpool Music Hall of Fame as the debut Charter Member in 2007. Again in 2011, it was announced that two new streets would be named Pete Best Drive and Casbah Closed.
