BEST FOOT FORWARD

Time apparently has healed whatever wounds drummer Pete Best may have suffered when he was canned from The Beatles by the band's manager, Brian Epstein.

He and Paul McCartney have not spoken in more than four decades, but Best would like to see their silence come to an end.

"We're not getting any younger," the 65-year-old Best said in a story that ran Saturday (April 7) in London's Daily Mail. "We know what we've done, and we're not going to think any worse of each other if we had a chat now."

Best, reportedly fired from the band in August 1962 for no specific reason, should not have been the one to extend an olive branch. And as the lone survivor from Best's days with The Beatles, McCartney is the only one who can accept it and finally put the past to rest.

Nobody's expecting them to regroup and make an album together. An ice-breaking conversation, however, could turn out to be as sweet as any music they've ever made.