A Beatle is coming to Hollywood! Ringo Starr will be at Amoeba Records in Hollywood on Thursday (April 17) morning with songwriter/producer Linda Perry for a special listening party.
The duo will be on hand to introduce Starr's new Crooked Boy EP, which is a Record Store Day exclusive, as it's played for fans for the first time at 11 a.m. PT. The song "Crooked Boy" was written and produced by Perry, the former 4 Non-Blondes singer who has written and produced recordings for Pink, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Ariana Grande and others.
Fans who attend will receive a raffle ticket for the opportunity to win Ringo merchandise, a limited-edition Beatles turntable, Amoeba gift certificates and a chance to be first in line on Record Store Day at Amoeba to buy Ringo's RSD EP release.
However, organizers note that Ringo and Perry won't be available for photos, autographs or to receive gifts from fans.
Ringo later gave his reasoning behind the policy to Howard Stern, who has played Starr's video message repeatedly over the years. "That was one angry moment," Starr told Stern. "I was signing scratch plates that they have on guitars in New York and someone had screwed one onto a sh-t guitar and it was selling for three grand on eBay. And I went, 'No.' I only sign for charity now and mainly my charity and [my wife] Barbara [Bach]'s charity."
Ringo won't be the first Beatle to appear at Amoeba. In June 2007, his old mate Paul McCartney and his touring band played a secret show at the record store's old Hollywood location. Recordings from that show first appeared on an EP titled Amoeba's Secret and were released as B-sides before the complete recordings were issued as an album called Amoeba Gig in July 2019.
