Three children of Beatles members have collaborated on a new song. Sean Ono Lennon and James McCartney linked with Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr, for “Rip Off.” The song is credited to Mantra of the Cosmos, Starkey’s supergroup with Happy Mondays members Shaun Ryder and Bez and Andy Bell of Ride. Lennon and McCartney lend vocals to the psychedelic song that Starkey previewed on his Instagram page.
While many may view the song as a sort of Beatles redux moment, Starkey swiftly pushed back on that notion. When a reporter for The Telegraph asked him about needing Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison, on the song, Starkey replied, “No I don’t. Why do I?” He clarified, “No it’s not [like the Beatles]. 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.”
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Starkey’s sentiment confirms McCartney’s 2012 assessment that a band featuring Beatles kids is unlikely. He told the BBC, “I don’t think it’s something that Zak wants to do. Maybe Jason [another of Starr’s sons] would want to do it. I’d be up for it. Sean seemed to be into it, Dhani seemed to be into it. I’d be happy to do it.” When asked if he thinks it could happen one day, he surmised, “Hopefully, naturally. I don’t know, you’d have to wait and see. The will of God, nature’s support, I guess. So yeah, maybe.” For now, “Ripoff” is the most substantial collaboration of Beatles children, with three sons on the track.
Recently, Starkey told Rolling Stone‘s Andy Greene that the idea for Mantra of the Cosmos was formulated by his friend Hartwig Masuch, a former CEO of BMG. He said, “[Hartwig] came to me with an idea of a Britpop supergroup…. I was like, “A Britpop supergroup? You think I’m going to call Johnny Marr, Liam Gallagher, and Paul Weller, and they’ll go, ‘Wow, what a fuckin’ great idea that is! Let’s all get our egos in one room and it’s gonna go great!’ I went, ‘I’m only a bit cool. But I know those guys, and they’re really cool. And even I don’t want to do that. If I’m not in, they won’t be.’”
