Ringo Starr sets virtual 80th birthday benefit concert

For his 80th birthday this coming Tuesday, Ringo Starr is breaking from his past tradition of an all-star concert for fans outside Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood to instead virtually stage the annual show as a benefit fundraiser.

"As everyone knows I love gathering with fans for peace and love on my birthday," the legendary drummer and former Beatle said in a statement Tuesday. "But this year, I want everyone to be safe at home — so I called up a few friends and we put this Big Birthday Show together so we could still celebrate my birthday with you all, with some great music for some great charities. I hope you will all join me! Peace and Love, Ringo."

In implicit acknowledgment of the COVID-19 pandemic, Starr in a YouTube video Tuesday said, "We're doing something for my birthday but it's a little different from usual when we have all the bands playing [and] we have speeches … and thousands of people."

"Ringo's Big Birthday Show," streaming at 8 p.m. on July 7 at his YouTube channel, will benefit the charitable/advocacy groups Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid.

The concert, said a news release at The Beatles' official website, will include "unique home performances as well as never-before-seen concert footage from Starr, Paul McCartney and Joe Walsh as well as Gary Clark Jr., Sheryl Crow, Sheila E and Ben Harper and more."

It will premiere a "guest star version" of Starr's 2017 single "Give More Love," benefiting the Recording Academy's MusiCares, which provides "assistance to music people in times of need," and featuring Jeff Bridges, Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Peter Frampton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Keb Mo and Willie Nelson.

It also is set to include performances of Starr songs from past birthday celebrations, plus new versions from some of those above as well as Judy Collins, Ben Dickey, Ben Folds, Colin Hay, Bettye LaVette, Steve Lukather, Richard Marx and Gregg Rolie.

The annual event was first held in 2008 at Chicago's Hard Rock Cafe. Subsequent shows took place in Times Square (2010) and in other locales here and abroad, with all but one show since 2014 held outside Capitol Records Tower. Two shows previously were online-only, in 2009 and 2013.

A traditional aspect of the celebration has been a moment to reflect on global peace and love, at noon in each different time zone. "Don't forget: noon on the seventh of the seventh, 2020, you go, 'Peace and love,' that's all I ask. 'Peace and love,' " Starr said in his YouTube video. "Wherever you are," he added jocularly. "On the bus, down in the mine, in a spaceship, in a rocket! Yeah. Peace and love," he said, holding his hand in a peace symbol.