Recap: Ringo Starr's Star-Studded “Peace and Love” Birthday Gathering, Featuring Jackson
Ringo Starr marked his 85th birthday on July 7 at a star-studded gathering in Beverly Hills, California. The event, which took place in Beverly Gardens Park, was the latest edition of the famed Beatles drummer’s annual “Peace and Love” birthday celebration.
Starr has just posted a recap video of the event on his social media pages. The four-minute-plus clip captures glimpses of some of the
The guest performers included Jackson Browne, Molly Tuttle, Lucius singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and Sam Phillips. The backing band featured longtime All Starr Band drummer Gregg Bissonette, veteran country/bluegrass multi-instrumentalist John Jorgensen, violinist David Mansfield, bassist Colin Linden, and guitarist Dennis Crouch. Tuttle, Wolfe, Laessig, Mansfield, Linden, and Crouch all contributed to Starr’s country-influenced 2025 album, Look Up.
The video starts with footage of a performance, appropriately enough, of the Beatles classic “Birthday.” Browne, Tuttle, the Lucius members, and Phillips all contributed vocals to the song. The rendition features a slight lyrical adjustment to acknowledge the birthday boy.
The clip also captures Starr arriving to the party in a limousine with Joe Walsh and their respective wives, who happen to be sisters. In addition, there’s footage of Starr chatting with various members of the press. He tells one interviewer from Access Hollywood that the 2025 gathering was “the biggest we had so far.”
The Other Performances
The recap then proceeded to show some of the various other performances. Tuttle played a countrified version of “Octopus’s Garden,” augmented by some fiddle from Mansfield.
Phillips then joined Tuttle for a duet version of Ringo’s chart-topping 1973 hit “Photograph.”
Browne took to the stage to sing the 1963 Buck Owens country hit “Act Naturally,” which Ringo recorded with The Beatles in 1965.
All of the performers joined in for a rousing version of the Starr-sung Beatles classic “Yellow Submarine.”
Other Interview Segments
The video also captured other snippets of media interviews with Ringo. One journalist comments to Starr about the fact that Ringo had recorded a special audio message that was transmitted to the moon on July 7. You can find out more about the transmission at IntuitiveMachines.com.
Another journalist asked Starr, “When you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, what will you be wishing for?” Quipped Ringo, “New lungs.”The “Peace and Love” Declaration … and Birthday Cake!
For the finale of the gathering, Starr came up on the stage, joined by the musicians and performers, as well as family members, friends, and celebrity guests. Among them were Walsh, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, and Toto and All Starr Band guitarist Steve Lukather. After the crowd sang “Happy Birthday to You” to Starr, a psychedelic-colored birthday cake was brought out. The cake was topped with a white cowboy hat like the one Ringo wears on the Look Up album cover.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Matt Friedlander