In March 1989 Ringo Starr joined George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Mike Campbell to film the video for the Tom Petty solo track, 'I Won't Back Down'. The original recording featured Phil Jones on drums, but since he was unavailable for the video Ringo was called in to fill in. This particular song isn't really a musical reunion as the musicians were miming to the original recording which did not feature Ringo. George did play rhythm guitar and add background vocals to the original track. The distinctive slide guitar on the track that sounds like George is actually Mike Campbell playing. According to Tom Petty, however, when they were recording the video they had guitar amps and were jamming in between takes. A limited edition 7-inch single released in the U.K. featured pictures of George and Ringo on the back cover.
What they said about it:
Tom Petty
David Fricke (Rolling Stone): You played in a partial Beatles reunion. Harrison and Ringo Starr appeared in your video for "I Won't Back Down."
"It was George's idea to get Ringo. What am I going to say - No? I knew Ringo. He would hang around with us. But I still can't believe that happened. We had amps on the set, and we'd be jamming between takes. I remember playing and looking at Mike, like, 'How about this?'" Source: Rolling Stone, 10 December 2009
"George Harrison, he would come around to visit and we got him to play on one and he helped us with the vocals...." Source: Countdown (Australian TV show) - Tom Petty interview 1989
"We didn't have a drummer and it was just a classic case of George saying, 'Well Ringo could do it maybe,' and we called him up. And he was, you know, he was free that day, came down and hang around with the boys. It was great, really." Source: MTV 1989 - Tom Petty Interview and Full Moon Fever Listening Party for LA Fans.
"George was around a lot during that time. Just socially, just hanging out. His family would come over, and we became close, the two families. So George would sometimes come to the session to hang out. That was a particular time that he was there, and he wound up singing with us.
"I played the piano. Jeff had the melody for the verse, and then I came up with the main riff. We got together, and with all this synergy, we pretty much finished the song - all but one line. Which was "There ain't no easy way out." I didn't have a line for that. And I was singing, 'I'm standing on the edge of the world.' [Laughs] And when we were recording it, George said, 'What the hell is that- "I'm standing on the edge of the world." Surely there's got to be something better than that.' [Laughs] And then I came up with "There ain't no easy way out," which seemed so obvious. But that was George going, 'That line's dumb.' And so I'm really glad that I got all the dumb lines out, because it's a song that apparently a lot of people have been inspired by. I get a lot of people telling me, either through the mail or in person, how that song has played a role in helping them in some way in their life. How it's given them conviction to get over a certain obstacle in their life." Source: 'Conversations With Tom Petty' by By Paul Zollo.
Mike Campbell
TQR: Around the time of “Full Moon Fever”, I remember you playing the solo on the video of “I Won’t Back Down” on what I thought was the George Harrison “Magical Mystery Tour” Stratocaster, which he called “Rocky” Was that actually George’s guitar and do you own it?
"It was… We flew over to England to do that video, and Ringo came down to play in the video, and George brought that guitar down and he said “Here, you wanna play this?” and I was like, “Sure!” (laughs). It was a thrill to hold it and play it, but I don’t own that guitar. George was just like that though, he was very generous." Source: TONEQUEST REPORT V9. N5. March 2008 p.7
