Ringo Starr got an early start to Grammy week, with famous friends honouring him for his life and work.
The former Beatle received the Lifetime of Peace and Love award from the David Lynch Foundation during a tribute concert at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles.
In turn, Starr led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Lynch, the director known for Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, who was celebrating his 68th birthday.
Sir Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono expressed their love for Starr via videos, while George Harrison's widow, Olivia, was in the crowd. Starr and McCartney will perform separately at Sunday's Grammy Awards.
"It's a weird place to be this evening," Starr said on stage. "All this praise is overwhelming really. It's really great to look out and see all these people I recognise and three of them are meditating."
Lynch's foundation helps provide scholarships to teach transcendental meditation - a practice the Beatles dabbled in - to at-risk youths, veterans and domestic violence victims.
"Everybody loves Ringo," Lynch said. "Not just because he's a Beatle, not just because he's one of the tastiest drummers ever, but because he radiates that peace and love."
Don Was served as musical director for the all-star house band which included Peter Frampton, drummer Kenny Aronoff, former Toto guitarist Steve Lukather and keyboardist Benmont Tench of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers.
"It's a great little band," Starr said. "I know them all personally."
Jesse Elliott and Lindsay Giles of Ark Life kicked off the show with a duet of Can't Do It Wrong. The Head And The Heart paid homage to the Beatles on Octopus's Garden before Brendan Benson sang Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go. Starr watched from the audience, bobbing his head to the beat.
Bettye LaVette offered up a soulful take on It Don't Come Easy after noting her 50th anniversary in the music business. "This is the baddest band I've had in the entire 50 years," she said.
Ben Folds tore through Oh My My, resembling a mad scientist as he pounded the electric keyboard.
"It's very rare I play an ironing board for you, and it's only for Ringo and David," he joked.
Ben Harper slowed things down on Walk With You, before turning the stage over to Joe Walsh, who took a break from the Eagles' run of shows reopening the Forum to jam for his brother-in-law. Walsh's wife, Marjorie, is the sister of Starr's wife, Barbara Bach.
"I'm gonna cheat," Walsh cracked, with the lyrics to Back Off Boogaloo propped on a stand in front of him.
By then, Starr had left his seat to head backstage, dancing in the wings as Walsh showed off his guitar licks.
"I've written these songs, but I've never heard them like that," Starr said as he took the stage for the finale.
He launched into his hit Photograph, then got behind the drums for Boys.
"I have to play something from the drums so you can see I can still hold the sticks," he joked.
Starr closed the show by taking the lead on With A Little Help From My Friends, joined on stage by Jim Carrey, Sheila E and Edgar Winter as the crowd got on its feet for the sing-along.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article