Category Archives: on your sleeve

If you were wondering how Ringo Starr got his power from roughly 1976 to 1980 (a period of career freefall), wonder no further. It wasn’t from all the cocaine, it was from his power ring! And that item that you never knew existed can now be yours thanks to an upcoming auction. It’s one of two items consigned by ex-girlfriends of ex-Beatles being offered by the online auction house Mecum Auctions (the things we never knew existed are starting to pile up). This ring was commissioned as a gift for Ringo by his mid-70s era girlfriend Nancy Andrews and was designed by Heyoka Merrifield, supposedly a jeweler to the stars. Ringo wore the ring on the cover of his Ringo the 4th album, an LP that recast the tired-sounding former Fab as an unlikely disco singer and found little favor with the record buying public.

The inscription on the inside of the ring reads, “12/25/76…’You’ll never know just how much I love you'” which aside from being a trite platitude is also a line from You’ll Never Know, a song made popular by Alice Faye in 1943, because at least 3 out of 4 members of The Beatles were fixated on the music of their parents’ generation.

This item is part of a sale of showbiz memorabilia ranging from eyeglasses and clothes owned by John Lennon to a Swarovski Crystal Darth Vader helmet (because we all remember that scene in Star Wars where Darth Vader turned up blinged the fuck out) to a killer pair of truly old school Nikes once owned by some dead Hollywood stuntman to a fairly awesome rolling pin signed by employees of Republic Pictures. So get your credit cards ready.

Meanwhile, Ringo Starr turns 73 today. The oldest Beatle continues to get old.