Ringo Starr, drummer of 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 by 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 post. For his 86th, 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 included 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 ended with a performance of “Birthday” by The Beatles, a “Peace and Love” blessing by Starr, and a massive cake featuring Starr throwing up a peace sign.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by todperry (@todperry) Anyone can practice peace and love Upworthy spoke with Starr at the event, and when asked whether there were any peace practitioners or teachers he admires, Starr turned the question on its head. Starr respects anyone who has peace in their heart, while also being realistic about the challenges in promoting non-violence. “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 told Upworthy while holding up a double peace sign.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by todperry (@todperry) Starr also addressed The Beatles’ continued inter-generational popularity, after former bandmate Paul McCartney was a featured performer at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding on July 3, playing “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” However, 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 full-hearted embrace of peace and love is the logical extension of his former band’s oeuvre and the spirit of the era they inspired. John Lennon created an anthem of the hippie generation with “Give Peace a Chance” shortly before the band’s breakup, and George Harrison topped the charts three years later with 1973’s “Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth.” Paul McCartney summed up the band’s attitude perfectly on the final album they recorded, Abbey Road, singing, “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 has kept the cause 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 years old, Starr still tours with his band and has maintained an incredible amount of the youthful energy that caught the world’s attention during Beatlemania in the early ‘60s. However, he wants his legacy to extend far beyond music; he’s said he’d like his call for peace and love to live on long after he retires from the drum kit. By praising anyone willing to throw up a peace sign, he shows that his movement isn’t about inspiring world leaders, but sparking an even greater power that everyone in the world can share.  The post ‘We can’t beat you up for peace’: Ringo Starr shares a universal message on his 86th birthday appeared first on Upworthy.

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