Ringo Is My Hero

Add Ringo Starr to my list of heroes…

Ringo was scheduled to perform on yesterday’s “Live With Regis and Kelly,” but walked off the set after his sound check when he was told he would have to cut his song.

Ringo was going to perform a song from his new CD with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics). The song was over four minutes long and Ringo managed to cut it to three and a half.

But because “Live” producer Michael Gelman has that ridiculous two and a half minute rule, the song had to be cut more. So Ringo decided he would rather not appear than have to cut the song more.

I say, good for him…

Every other talk show allows performers to do their entire song—or at least enough of it so it makes sense. But “Live” insists on restricting performances, which often hurts the artist more than it helps (Blake Lewis, anyone?).

Stewart summed it up best in his statement: “Four minutes seemed like an appropriate amount of time for a former Beatle. Mr. Gelman apparently felt Ringo’s legacy should take a back seat to additional banter about the size of Ms. Ripa’s derriere”…