Ringo Starr’s still performing — and coming to Rio Rancho

RIO RANCHO — He’s got the hair of a 30-year-old and is seemingly ageless at 83.

And he’s coming to the Rio Rancho Events Center on Wednesday, Sept. 20, with his All Starr Band.

“Remember peace and love — the only way,” is how Ringo Starr signed off at a recent concert, so those Beatles days of love and peace don’t seem that far off — although it’s been well over 50 years since the Fab Four performed.

Ringo’s one of the many who only need to go by a first name, joining Elvis, Madonna, Groucho, Beyonce, Eminem, Prince, among others, who really don’t need a surname for identity.

It wasn’t hard for the Observer to find differing demographics of his fans.

“I saw the Beatles’ 1965 concert at the Hollywood Bowl,” remembers Shayne Sawyer Abrahamson of Rio Rancho. “My dad dropped four of us girls off (it was safe at that time), and we had third-row seats, just off center box seats. I had a set of Bausch and Lomb binoculars, and I could see every pore on Paul’s face, but it was hard to hear them because of all the screaming.

“The second year (I lived in Rio Rancho), we saw Ringo Starr and his All Starr band at Sandia, second row, just off center. I didn’t really want to go but (my husband) Keith did, so we took the kids and went. Tickets were $65 which, coming from L.A., was super cheap. It turned out that he had some fabulous ‘stars’ and the concert was so much fun. Each Star sung a song that their band was famous for, and the audience was singing along.”

Once was not enough for Abrahamson, and she and husband Keith will celebrate another anniversary by heading to the Events Center later this month.

Rio Rancho High School freshman Gretchen Lee was so enamored with the Beatles that she did a National History Day presentation about the Fab Four last year when she was attending Eagle Ridge Middle School.

“I was looking for a theme when I was at my house … and my grandma (Carol Woolard) has all this memorabilia for the Beatles ‘cause she was alive back then,” Gretchen said. “So she has a whole bunch of stuff and so I said that would be a good topic. I started doing some research and the teachers got all excited about it, and then I ended up the only (ERMS) student entered.”

“Her grandmother’s an old-school rocker,” Gretchen’s father, Jay Lee, said. As for Jay, his first concert appearance was 30 years ago, when he saw Metallica.

Her favorite Beatle? Like the majority of teenaged girls in the 1960s, Paul McCartney.

“Here, there, everywhere,” Gretchen quickly answered when asked, is her favorite Beatles song. “Revolver,” she replied even quicker, is her favorite Beatles LP. “It has some of their best songs, I think.

“I think we have all the albums,” she said. “Some of them on vinyl. I’ve listened to all the albums, listened to them almost nonstop, like three months. We have, like, the Beatles’ channel (on satellite radio).”

She said she’ll be with her family, even grandma, at the Ringo show.

Although she never saw the Beatles live, Woolard did see Paul McCartney and Wings in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And although she didn’t get to attend a Beatles concert — the closest, she said, they got to her Newport News, Virginia, home was the nation’s capital — she accumulated a good collection of memorabilia.

And, she said, “I have all the albums and the Beatles dolls my boyfriend gave me when I was 15.” She’s 73 today.

She’s still rockin’, as her son Jay attested, recalling seeing the Eagles as far back as 1972 and again, with Cheryl Crow, at the Hard Rock Café when she was living in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Back in the day, she said, “I liked the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, all the British groups and, of course, the Beach Boys,” she added. As for Ringo, “We got tickets when they first announced it.”

No kidding? He’s 83?

Born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940, Starr knew from very early on what he wanted to do: “When I was 13, I only wanted to be a drummer,” he remembers.

On Aug. 18, 1962, Ringo officially joined Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison in what would become one of the most important popular music acts of all time, or says Ringo, “the biggest band in the land.”

In 1971, he began his unprecedented run as the first solo Beatle to score seven consecutive Top 10 singles, starting with “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Starr has since been a successful solo singer, songwriter, drummer, collaborator and producer — releasing 18 solo studio albums and appearing in more than 15 films. Drawing inspiration from classic blues, soul, country, honky-tonk and rock ‘n’ roll, he still plays an important recording, touring and unofficial mentoring role in modern music.

In 1989, Ringo assembled his first All Starr Band, and he found consistent success as a live act with his revolving All Starrs.

In June 2013, The Grammy Museum opened “Ringo: Peace & Love,” a record-breaking undertaking that drew more than 120,000 visitors and was the first major exhibit to focus on a drummer. In September 2013, Ringo was awarded the French Medal of Honor, being appointed Commander of Arts & Letters in recognition of his musical and artistic contributions.

Jan. 26, 2014, saw Ringo perform his song “Photograph” on the Grammys, followed by him jumping on the kit during his old bandmate Paul McCartney’s performance. Ringo and Paul then performed together again the following evening, playing several songs for the Emmy Award-nominated taping of CBS’s “The Beatles, A Grammy Salute; The Night That Changed America,” celebrating the 50th anniversary of their first U.S. visit and appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

In April 2015, Ringo was inducted by McCartney into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist for Musical Excellence, and that night he performed some songs with McCartney, Joe Walsh and Green Day

Throughout his career, he has received nine Grammys and has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Between 1970 and 2015, Ringo has released 18 solo studio records.

Ringo’s “All Starr Band” mates — Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette in his spring tour — perform songs from their individual careers, alongside Starr’s hits. These musicians have also played for McCartney, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Toto and many more iconic acts.

Expected to be heard in the City of Vision will be Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy;” the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends;”; a cover of Toto’s “Africa” led by Toto founder Lukather; “Pick Up the Pieces” by Average White Band (Stuart is an original member); and Men at Work’s hit “Overkill” that was founded by front man Hay.

Get tickets by visiting tickets-center.com. They start at $89 and range up to $1,269 for front-row seats.