Review: Beatles legend thrills fans with a little help from his friends
Ringo Starr was full of energy and enthusiasm as he took the stage on Thursday night (June 11) with His All Starr Band.
“Ready to hear some good music?” the 85-year-old Beatles legend asked the packed house at the San Jose Civic. “I have to tell you that all of you in the venue will know at least one song.”
Talk about under-promising then over-delivering.
Starr and his band of merry men would deliver a 100-minute-plus show that was filled with 22 great tunes that most everyone in the house knew by heart. That included songs from both The Beatles’ catalog — ones like “With a Little Help From My Friends” that Starr originally sang lead vocals on — and Sir Ringo’s own often-underrated solo catalog.
The concert also mined the catalogs of three of the members of His All Starr Band — guitarist-vocalist Steve Lukather from Toto, vocalist-guitarist Colin Hay of Men at Work and bassist-vocalist Hamish Stuart from Average White Band.
And one can make a case that some of these selections — especially the old MTV blockbusters “Down Under” by Men at Work and “Africa” by Toto — are even more prominent and familiar to crowds today than much of the Starr material.
Indeed, “Africa” might be the single most omnipresent ’80s tune of the last 10 years — having wrestled that title away from Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” — thanks in large part to a straight-ahead (and totally unnecessary) cover by Weezer.
The rest of His All Starr Band was filled with seasoned pros — saxophonist Warren Ham (who also hails from Toto, but wasn’t in the fold when the band crafted its biggest hits), drummer Gregg Bissonette (who has worked with everyone from David Lee Roth to Pat Boone) and keyboardist Buck Johnson (whose credits include Aerosmith and Hollywood Vampires).
The show kicked off with Starr down at centerstage, working in front of his six bandmates and running through the Carl Perkins rockabilly favorite “Matchbox,” a Beatles favorite dating way back to the pre-Ringo days when Pete Best was on the drum throne and handled vocals on the cover tune.
Starr stayed on the microphone for the 1971 solo smash “It Don’t Come Easy,” before heading back to his drum kit — erected next to the one where Bissonette thundered away all night long — and handing the show over to axe-man extraordinaire Lukather for a terrific take on Toto’s “Rosanna.” The song, which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1983 ceremony, climaxed with a absolutely triumphant guitar solo from Lukather, showing once again why he’s one of the very best in the business.
From there, Stuart stepped to the forefront with the Average White Band’s groovy instrumental “Pick Up the Pieces,” which found Ham leading the way with his mighty tenor sax work. Then it was time for Hay, who zoomed right back to the days when MTV ruled the entertainment world as he led the crowd in a sing-along of “Down Under.”
Lest we forget who was the Starr of the show, Sir Ringo popped back up with “Boys” — a Shirelles classic that the Beatles covered and released on the 1963 U.K. debut “Please Please Me” — as he handled the vocals from the drumkit. He then set down the drumsticks and ventured down front for the John Lennon-penned “I’m the Greatest,” which served as the opening track to 1973’s “Ringo.”
Starr sounded strong on the microphone throughout the night — never wowing, of course, but certainly doing justice to these longtime fan favorites. He also managed to more than just keep pace with Bissonette on drums, which is certainly no easy feat. And he showed off that classic Ringo sense of humor as he interacted with the crowd, playfully responding to one fan’s cry for his attention with: “Yeah, what do you want? Let me stop the whole show and come over to talk with you.”
Starr continued on with “Yellow Submarine,” which arguably resulted in the biggest sing-along of the night, and then left the stage as his bandmates grooved through a funky version of the Average White Band’s “Cut the Cake” that included nods to Queen, Led Zeppelin, Free, Rolling Stones and, most appropriately, The Beatles.
Starr then reappeared to handle lead vocals on a trio of tunes — staying on the “Yellow Submarine” underwater theme with the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden”; following up with the big “No No Song” solo hit from 1974’s “Goodnight Vienna”; and then closing out the segment by touching on his latest solo album, this year’s country music effort “Long Long Road,” with “Choose Love.”
Then Starr moved back to the drums and made room for his bandmates to race through another round of hits, as Hay powered through both Men at Work’s “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Overkill,” Lukather unleashed Toto’s “Africa” and “Hold the Line” and Stuart switched from bass to guitar for AWB’s Isley Brothers cover “Work to Do.”
The show wrapped up in Starr-studded fashion, as the man of the hour took centerstage one more time for the platinum-plus-selling “Ringo” single “Photograph” and then returned to his Beatles days with the country cover of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ “Act Naturally.”
As expected, the closer was the Fab Four favorite “With a Little Help From My Friends” — which found His All Starr Band burgeoning into an octet with the appearance of Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon and Vic Johnson from Sammy Hagar and the Circle.
Starr took his bows as “My Friends” was wrapping up and waltzed off stage. Yet, the song then managed to twist its way into the John Lennon anti-war anthem “Give Peace a Chance,” which brought the band leader bounding right back into the mix to help close out the night with plenty of his signature “Peace and Love” vibes.
Setlist:
1. “Matchbox”
2. “It Don’t Come Easy”
3. “Rosanna”
4. “Pick Up the Pieces”
5. “Down Under”
6. “Boys”
7. “I’m the Greatest”
8. “Yellow Submarine”
9. “Cut the Cake”
10. “Octopus’s Garden”
11. “No No Song”
12. “Choose Love”
13. “Overkill”
14. “Africa”
15. “Work to Do”
16. “I Wanna Be Your Man”
17. “Who Can It Be Now?”
18. “Hold the Line”
19. “Photograph”
20. “Act Naturally”
21. “With a Little Help From My Friends”
Encore:
22. “Give Peace a Chance”
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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 10:42 AM.