Hello, Ringo! Ex-Beatle Invades L.A.

The estimable Mr. Starr performs and takes questions at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles this past week, Jan. 19.

By Jose Martinez / Photos by Becky Sapp, Wire Image

Time spent with a Beatle is as close as us mere mortals on this side of the Atlantic can get to royalty or a true rock & roll deity. There are rock & roll stars and then there are Beatles, and now there are only two of them left. It just doesn't get any bigger that that.

So imagine the electricity in the air as the GRAMMY Museum was preparing to host its Evening With Ringo Starr last night. Having hosted many of these intimate sessions with some of the world's most famous and popular musicians and icons (think Brian Wilson, Annie Lennox, Clive Davis) there was a buzz about the place as a record-setting sold out crowd of 200, tickets for the evening's event were gone in less than eight minutes, anxiously awaited Ringo.

Celebrating the release of his most recent effort, Y Not, Starr was in fine form during a Q&A session with GRAMMY Museum executive director Robert Santelli. Phrases like "big night" and "historic evening" were bantered about during the artist introduction. When talking about Y Not, the first solo record that Starr produced himself, he quipped, "It was the first time I could tell a guitarist what to do. I haven't had so much fun making a record."

Teaming up with former Beatle Paul McCartney on two tracks ("Peace Dream" and "Walk With You"), Starr shared stories of "that band I was in during the ‘60s." Talking about his All Star Band that includes the likes of Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Edgar Winter (in attendance, along with Max Weinberg), Starr joked, "They're great, but I'm the greatest."

A fan of "only American music" growing up in Liverpool, Starr, who has been a solo artist now for 40 years, confessed to being a musical "thief" always tempted to steal from his own material.

Joined onstage by Ben Harper, the discussion continued about the pair's collaboration on Y Not. "I keep saying don't wake me up," a very humble Harper gushed about his time working with Starr.

Then it was time to play and Starr and Harper and the Relentless 7 took on "Photograph," an early Starr solo hit, followed by the new track "Walk With You." Then Harper and his band played "I Will Not Be Broken" and "Up To You Now" with such powerful emotion it was mesmerizing.

Rejoined by Starr they played another new track, "The Other Side of Liverpool" which the affable singer/drummer had to stop and restart after singing the wrong line. "That's why [playing] live is great," he declared.

Finishing off with "A Little Help From My Friends" and a jam version of "Boys" the audience knew they had just witnessed something extremely special. Every once in a while you get that feeling that we're lucky to live in L.A., besides when the rest of the country is buried in snow and we're playing at the beach, and this was definitely one of those moments.