In August 1962, the Beatles fired their drummer, Pete Best. None of them told him to his face. Seven weeks later, their first single came out. Within two years, they played Ed Sullivan in front of 73 million Americans. In the video below, Best tells David Letterman what happened when he saw them again: "Nobody said sorry Pete, or we'll talk to you later about it, or it was business, or nothing. Just stony silence." He had played with them for two years. Hamburg, seven hours a night, seven days a week. The Cavern. Then their manager, Brian Epstein, called him into his office. "The boys want you out," Best remembers Epstein saying, "and they want Ringo Starr in." Soon after, Best's new band opened for the Beatles twice. As he walked off stage, they walked on. Not one word. Best ended up slicing bread in a bakery. In 1965 he tried to take his own life, and his family stopped him. Then he spent about 20 years as a civil servant. John Lennon is famously quoted as saying: "We were cowards when we sacked him. We made Brian do it." In 1995, 33 years later, Anthology 1 came out with early recordings of Best on drums. His royalties are estimated at between £1 million and £4 million. The official reason was that he wasn't a good enough drummer. The producer, George Martin, had reportedly wanted someone else in the studio. Best gives a different answer: "In a nutshell, Dave, jealousy." So was Pete Best fired for his drumming, or out of jealousy?