Ringo Starr, the drummer for The Beatles, celebrated his 86th birthday on July 7 and, as he has done for the past 18 years, asked the world to join him in embracing his mantra of “peace and love.”
“Every July the 7th on my birthday since 2008, I invite anyone who wants to join me in spreading peace and love by posting, saying, or even just thinking peace and love at noon. Wherever you are, peace and love at noon,” Starr said in a YouTube video.
For his 86th birthday, Starr invited a group of friends and family—including members of his All-Starr Band, Toto’s Steve Lukather, and Men at Work’s Colin Hay—to celebrate at Beverly Hills Garden Park. The event also featured a performance by a children’s choir and The Texans, fronted by Molly Tuttle, who appears on Starr’s latest LP, Long Long Road.
The event concluded with a performance of “Birthday” by The Beatles, a “Peace and Love” blessing from Starr, and the unveiling of a massive cake featuring Starr flashing a peace sign.
Anyone can practice peace and love
Upworthy spoke with Starr at the event and asked whether there were any peace practitioners or teachers he particularly admired. Starr turned the question on its head, saying he respects anyone who carries peace in their heart while remaining realistic about the challenges of promoting nonviolence.
“Anybody who does this [holds up peace sign], I admire. And I thank them. Because that’s all we can do. We can’t, like, demand peace, can we? We can’t beat you up for peace, you know what I mean? Peace and loving,” Starr said while holding up a double peace sign.
Starr also addressed The Beatles’ enduring cross-generational popularity after former bandmate Paul McCartney performed at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding on July 3, playing “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Still, Starr wouldn’t reveal the Fab Four’s secret formula.
“It covers a lot of years now, you know what I mean? Like the kids now. They are going to listen to now. We did our best, worked hard, and it’s still working. That’s all I can say, really. I wish I could say, ‘Oh, it’s because of the ABC,’” Starr remarked in front of a large Peace & Love statue.
Starr’s wholehearted embrace of peace and love is the natural extension of The Beatles’ body of work and the spirit of the era they helped define. Shortly before the band’s breakup, John Lennon wrote the hippie generation’s anthem, “Give Peace a Chance.” Three years later, George Harrison topped the charts with “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” And on the band’s final recorded album, Abbey Road, McCartney summed up The Beatles’ philosophy with the immortal lyric: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
Starr carries on the spirit of the ‘60s and The Beatles
Fifty-six years after The Beatles’ breakup, in a world that has lost Lennon and Harrison, Starr continues to keep the message of peace alive.
“Well, ‘peace and love,’ I mean, is from the sixties, and, you know, I truly believe it, and I wish the whole world was living in peace and love,” Starr told The Daily Beast. “But, as we all know, it isn’t. But, you know, my part in it is I just go, ‘peace and love,’ and if anybody does it with me, for that second, two people have thought, ‘peace and love.’ So it sort of goes out like the pebble in the ocean, you know? The ripples go out and out and out. ‘Peace and love.’ You can’t beat that.”
At 86, Starr still tours with his band and has retained much of the youthful energy that captivated the world during Beatlemania in the early ’60s. But he hopes his legacy will extend far beyond music. He has said he wants his message of peace and love to endure long after he steps away from the drum kit.
By celebrating anyone willing to flash a peace sign, Starr shows that his movement isn’t about influencing world leaders—it’s about inspiring ordinary people to spread peace in their own lives.
