Peace and love, indeed. Ringo Starr lifted the spirits of a 17-year-old drummer and brain cancer survivor on Thursday by not only meeting with him, but giving him an awesome set of white Ludwig drums.
"You like those drums?" Starr, 70, asked Alexx Kipp, a young Beatles devotee, as they stood near a shiny black-and-white kit.
"Hell, yeah!" Kipp -- who also suffers from Tourette's syndrome -- replied, according to Pop and Hiss.
Kipp had flown to Hollywood with his family from his home in Arlington, Va., to meet his hero. Ringo sat beside Kipp behind the pristine Ludwig set the Hard Rock Café event, joining in by tapping on a floor tom and some cymbals as his new friend tested out the new drums.
Starr, who learned to play percussion while in hospital for long-term tuberculosis treatment when he was just 13, relayed to Kipp and other attendees how he got his start. The meeting was granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which orchestrates about 14,000 requests in the US each year, around 900 of which involve celebrities.
----spinner.com
