Did Ringo Starr admit that the 'real' Paul McCartney died and was replaced by a look-alike?

Some 'news' websites have been claiming that the only other surviving Beatles member aside from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, revealed in an interview recently, that the real Paul McCartney (pictured left) died in a car crash in 1966 and that the Paul McCartney we all know today (pictured right) is a look alike named Billy Shears that the band replaced with the real one.

All these conspiracy theories. Read the full story after the cut...its quite intriguing - but possibly not true! Above is a side-by-side image of Paul McCartney in 1964 and in present day

Paul and Ringo in 2009

In the past week you may have seen your friends on Twitter and Facebook discuss an interview in which Ringo Starr reportedly reveals the real Paul McCartney died in 1966.

Meaning that everything from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band onwards was not performed by him

The 'interview' claims that Beatles bassist Paul McCartney died in a car crash and was replaced by a look-alike in order to keep public morale from dropping.

This has long been a relatively popular conspiracy theory, but has - until recently - bubbled away in dark corners of the internet, disregarded as nothing more than just a conspiracy.

That was until last week, when a number of websites reported on an 'exclusive Ringo Starr interview' in which the former Beatles drummer admitted the conspiracy is true

The websites, such as WorldNewsDailyReport.com, reported that Ringo gave the interview to the Hollywood Inquirer, and claimed he said:

"When Paul died, we all panicked! We didn't know what to do, and Brian Epstein, our manager, suggested that we hire Billy Shears as a temporary solution. It was supposed to last only a week or two, but time went by and nobody seemed to notice, so we kept playing along. Billy turned out to be a pretty good musician and he was able to perform almost better than Paul. The only problem was that he couldn't get along with John, at all."

Well, no. The Hollywood Inquirer doesn't actually exist, and Ringo Starr certainly hasn't granted them an exclusive interview.

WorldNewsDailyReport is a satirical news website and is for entertainment purposes only.
If you recognise the name Billy Shears, that's because he is the fictional musician referenced in The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Paul McCartney is alive and well, and despite the fact we don't have any DNA evidence to support our theory, we do firmly believe he is the real deal.
Mainly because:

• Imagine the number of people who would have to lie in order to keep this conspiracy going - family members, friends, loved ones.
• Paul McCartney has a fairly unique voice, which still sounds pretty much the same now as it did in his youth (despite losing some vocal range due to old age).
• Paul McCartney is one of the greatest songwriters in modern music, but only someone as beautifully mad as Paul McCartney could have a hand in writing something as AWFUL as Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, which was written in 1968.
• Imagine the odds of finding an exact Paul McCartney look-alike, who sounds like Paul, writes songs like Paul, and can play bass and guitar left-handed (just like Paul) as well as being incredible at piano (just like Paul).