Ringo Starr on 200 Motels
Simon Prentis:
Tell us how you got involved in 200 Motels.
Ringo Starr:
Ah . . . It was very strange actually. A call came from the office—the Apple office at the time—that Frank Zappa had this idea and he wanted to come and present it to me. I thought, "Ah, great!" 'Cause, you know, I'd heard Frank's music and, you know, in a very musical way it was pretty wacky actually. And uh, so I invited Frank to, to my house where he, he came with a huge score. And he laid this huge score out and he said, "You know, I've got this idea—I wanna make this movie and here's the score." "Why are you showing me the score? I cannot read music. But because of that I will do the movie." So that's how it happened to me. It was very strange. So he told me he wanted me to play him, 'cause he just wanted to be like the musician in it. Also, it's like, you know, pretty strange like that Ringo playing Frank and then Frank being a musician, so it was a nice premise and I hung out with musicians. That was always a good deal.
Simon Prentis:
It was filmed in a very short period of time under very chaotic circumstances.
Ringo Starr:
It was filmed very fast, you know. A lot of it, you know—Though there was like the outline and some script, I mean, sometimes you just made it up. And you know, I was like the Devil Frank. And I would tape the band, when they were ordering food or whatever, you know, talking, and then Frank'd write a song about it and force them to play it and sing it, ha ha ha ha! Which was fun. So it was a really nice experience for me.
Simon Prentis:
In many ways it was a kind of a send-up of the whole pop star scene . . .
Ringo Starr:
It was.
Simon Prentis:
Does that appeal to you?
Ringo Starr:
It does. And uh, you couldn't get a bigger pop star than me at the time.
Simon Prentis:
What was it like working with him?
Ringo Starr:
It was good, you know. So, everyone had that image at the time—Frank, it was like this drug fiend and—you know, we all know now and I knew then that it's not something Frank got involved with at all. He just, uh—Just his image came across like, "God, he's gotta be on drugs," you know? And uh [...].
Simon Prentis:
Can you remember seen the film and did it . . .
Ringo Starr:
I did see the film. And well, yeah, it was good. You know it was good—again because it was fast and we did it, and it was just a film. Ah, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't pretentious, like, "Oh, we're making this movie!", like some rock & roll movies started to get in the end. It was good. It's nearly as good as Greaser's Palace. Anyway, that's it, really, I mean, what else can I say? It was a really nice experience, Frank was an incredible musician, and that's the end of it.
