Ringo Starr Talks White Album Auction: 'It Will Have My Fingerprints on It'
In a Beverly Hills back room filled with the personal possessions of a lifetime of fame as a Beatle and solo artist, Ringo Starr happily posed for pictures with guests on Tuesday. It was the opening-night party celebrating this week's auction of selected items from Starr's life and career to benefit his Lotus Foundation charity.
More than 800 items from his music career and the life he shares with wife Barbara Bach will be sold by Julien's Auctions, from star-shaped jewelry and vintage drum kits to his suit from A Hard Day's Night and mementos from decades of world travel. As guests took snapshots, Starr picked up a wooden Balinese statue and cradled it like he planned to take it back home.
"They'll never notice," he said with a laugh, then turned toward a mod tweed jacket hanging nearby and stroked his fingers on the lapel. "I'll try this on."
Starr will be one of thousands monitoring the auction online and on site at Julien's, with special attention paid to instruments used on Beatles and Starr solo records, including the 1964 Rickenbacker electric guitar given to him by John Lennon. A pair of rings he wore at every live Beatles gig he ever played are being sold. And in a glass case at the auction house was another precious item: the drummer's original mono U.K. edition of the White Album, stamped with a serial number A0000001.
By: Steve Appleford
Source: Rolling Stone
