Pete Best Net Worth

What is Pete Best's Net Worth?

Pete Best is a British musician who has a net worth of $4 million. Pete Best is best known for being the original drummer for the Beatles, a role he held from 1960 until 1962. In August 1962, the Beatles fired Pete and replaced him with Ringo Starr. This change came at a pivotal moment in the group's development, just after they had secured a recording contract with EMI's Parlophone label. Six months later, in February 1963, the group achieved their first UK #1 hit with "Please Please Me.". Their first album, "Please Please Me," topped the UK charts in May 1963, and "Beatlemania" began sweeping across the UK throughout 1963. Their international breakthrough, particularly in the US, came with their famous appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 – approximately 18 months after Ringo joined the band.

Before his Beatles stint, Best had been part of the Liverpool music scene with his own group, the Black Jacks, and his mother's Casbah Coffee Club provided an early performance venue for the pre-fame Beatles. After his dismissal, Best briefly joined Lee Curtis & the All-Stars before forming The Pete Best Combo, which found modest success but nothing approaching The Beatles' trajectory. The subsequent decades saw Best retreat from music entirely. He struggled with depression as his former group became the biggest band in history. Meanwhile, Pete spent 20 years working as a civil servant at Liverpool's employment office. His musical resurrection began in the late 1980s, bolstered significantly when The Beatles Anthology released early recordings featuring his drumming, earning him substantial royalties. More on these royalties in a moment. Best eventually returned to performing, formed a new band, and published his autobiography. Though forever known as "the fifth Beatle" who missed immortality by months, Best ultimately found peace with his unique place in music history.

As we detail at the end of this article, Pete and his brother inherited an important home in Liverpool from their mother. The home features a basement that their mother converted into a music venue called the Casbah Coffee Club, which served as a key early venue for the band. In 2024, Pete and his brother converted the home into a Beatles themed AirBnB.

Pete Best Beatles Royalties

For several decades, Pete Best did not earn any royalties from The Beatles' massive success. That changed in 1995 with the release of "The Beatles Anthology 1," a compilation that included ten early tracks featuring Best on drums. Sales of Anthology 1 yielded a substantial windfall for Best – reportedly between £1 million and £4 million in royalties. After adjusting for inflation and converting to USD, that range is the same as $3-12 million today.

Amazingly, the first time he learned about these royalties was through a phone call informing him that money was owed for those recordings. Paul McCartney has claimed that he was the one who personally called Pete to inform him of the royalties. Pete has denied ever speaking to McCartney.

Aside from royalties, Best's only other direct compensation tied to The Beatles came from a mid-1960s libel case. In a 1965 interview, two Beatles joked about Best's alleged "illnesses" (implying unreliability), which led Best to sue for defamation. He ultimately settled out of court for an amount "much less than the $18 million he had sought". This indicates he received a minor settlement (far below his claim) as a one-time payment. Other than this brief legal settlement and the Anthology royalties, Best had no ongoing financial ties to The Beatles' catalog. He does not receive royalties from the classic Beatles albums (since he didn't perform on those), but he continues to earn modest royalties from the Anthology tracks and any early recordings he played on.

Early Life

Randolph Peter Scanland was born on November 24th, 1941, in Madras, British India. His biological father was a marine engineer who died during World War II. While training to become a doctor in the Red Cross, Pete's mother met Johnny Best, who was a commissioned officer serving in India. The pair subsequently got married in 1944, and in 1945, Pete sailed with them to Liverpool. It was the last troopship to leave India. They then lived in West Derby for a time. A family legend claims that Pete's mother then pawned all her jewelry to place a bet on a horse named Never Say Die, which subsequently won the Epsom Derby at 33 to 1 odds.

The money allowed the family to purchase a large Victorian home on an acre of land in Liverpool. The residence also featured 15 bedrooms and a large cellar. This large cellar was later developed into the Casbah Coffee Club, where a band called The Quarrymen played music. This band included early Beatles members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. They were able to play at the club as a reward for helping Pete's mother paint the walls. Eventually, Pete decided he wanted to pursue a career in music, and his mother purchased a drum kit for him. He then formed his own band called the Black Jacks, and this band took over from the Quarrymen at the Casbah Coffee Club after the latter had canceled their residency.

Left to right: Paul McCartney, Pete Best, George Harrison and John Lennon (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Beatles

By 1960, the Quarrymen had become the Beatles. However, they had no permanent drummer at this point, and Paul McCartney started looking for someone who could fill the position. Best was an obvious choice, as Paul had seen him playing at the Casbah Coffee Club on numerous occasions. Best was then brought with the Beatles to Hamburg, where they toured extensively and were introduced to recreational drugs for the first time. However, Best always refused these drugs. He was also the only member of the band who had passed his school exams. Best was subsequently deported along with Harrison and McCartney for a fire-related prank committed by the latter.

It was during this time that Pete's mother started to step forward and act as an important asset for the band, arranging various bookings for them when they were back in Liverpool and recovering their equipment that had been left back in Hamburg. They then started recording extensively in the studio, and it was at this point that Best's drumming ability came under scrutiny. His timing was the main issue, and the Beatles were advised to find a studio drummer to replace Best for the recordings. Record producer George Martin later expressed regret at making this recommendation, as he believed that he was the catalyst that "changed Best's life."

When the other members of the Beatles discovered that Martin was planning to replace Best with another drummer for the recording sessions, they started to think about replacing him permanently. Eventually, they decided to ask their manager, Brian Epstein, to do it for them. This decision was later described (even by the Beatles themselves) as "cowardly." There were also doubts about whether it was the right decision, as Best was very popular with the fans. Indeed, many have suggested that it was this popularity that caused the other members to turn their backs on him. Best was widely considered the "best-looking Beatle," and women used to scream whenever he walked onto the stage. After Pete was replaced by Ringo Starr, one agitated fan even headbutted George Harrison.

Dismissal from the Beatles

After a successful audition for a record label, the reasons for Best's dismissal from the band are shrouded in myth. One story has it that the other members of The Beatles were jealous of Pete's good looks, as he was sometimes called the best-looking member of the band during those early years. Another story has it that producer George Martin preferred to use a session drummer instead of Best, as he lacked experience. Whatever the reason for his dismissal, it put Pete Best on a sad path of infamy – during the height of "Beatlemania," he reportedly attempted suicide.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

After the Beatles

After his abrupt dismissal from The Beatles in August 1962, Pete Best's life took a challenging turn that would eventually lead to redemption. Initially devastated, Best briefly continued his music career with Lee Curtis & the All-Stars before forming The Pete Best Combo, which toured the United States but found only modest success. By the mid-1960s, facing financial pressures and lacking the commercial traction of his former bandmates, Best gradually withdrew from the music scene.

The late 1960s marked a significant transition as Best left music entirely, taking a job as a civil servant at Liverpool's employment office, where he would work for nearly two decades. This period was marked by personal struggles, including a reported suicide attempt in the early 1960s and ongoing battles with depression as he watched his former band achieve unprecedented global success.

Best married Kathy in 1963, establishing a stable family life that provided crucial support through these difficult years. Together they raised two daughters while Best maintained a deliberate distance from his Beatles past, rarely giving interviews or discussing his former band.

His fortunes changed dramatically in the 1990s. The release of The Beatles Anthology 1 in 1995 included several early recordings featuring Best on drums, reportedly earning him between £1-4 million in royalties. This financial windfall coincided with Best's gradual reemergence in the public eye. He formed the Pete Best Band in 1988, started performing again, and eventually embraced his unique place in rock history.

Best released his autobiography "Beatle! The Pete Best Story" and became a regular at Beatles conventions and festivals. In recent years, he has found peace with his past, giving thoughtful interviews about his time with The Beatles and the aftermath of his departure.

(Photo by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage)

Personal Life

In 1963, Pete married a girl named Kathy whom he met previously at a Beatles show. They remain married to this day and have two daughters together.

Liverpool Home/Casbah Coffee Club

One notable asset tied to Pete Best's history is his family's Liverpool home, which doubled as an important Beatles landmark. In 1959, Best's mother, Mona Best, bought a large Victorian house at 8 Hayman's Green, Liverpool, and turned its basement into the Casbah Coffee Club – a venue where The Beatles (then the Quarrymen) played some of their earliest shows. Pete Best grew up in this home and even hosted the band there in their formative years. The property has remained in the Best family for decades. In recent years, Pete and his brother Roag Best have renovated the Casbah Club site into a boutique bed-and-breakfast, capitalizing on its Beatles history. In 2024, they opened it to the public via Airbnb, offering Beatles-themed rooms filled with memorabilia in the very house where Pete once lived.

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