Paul McCartney has defended former bandmate Ringo Starr's recent outburst against eager fans, insisting the Beatles drummer should be praised for his honesty.

Starr upset fans when he asked them to stop sending him requests for autographs, announcing he was too busy to scrawl his name on memorabilia.

He later backed down, insisting he was only addressing opportunists attempting to sell signed items online.

But McCartney claims Starr's only fault was his honesty.

The rocker says, "We love Ringo... In the world that we live in you're not supposed to say that, so he's always getting in trouble for speaking his mind... I think it's a good quality. It's called honesty, actually."

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)