SAN DIEGO — The numbers increasingly add up for Ringo Starr, whose sold-out Friday night San Diego performance at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay was the second date on the 2026 spring tour by this two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and his six-man All-Starr Band.

Their 21-song repertoire ranged from “Matchbox,” the Carl Perkins-penned 1956 rockabilly rave-up that opened the evening, to the concert-closing double-punch of the Beatles’ 1967 classic, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” and the sing-along chorus of John Lennon’s sadly still-timely 1969 anti-war anthem, “Give Peace a Chance.”

In between came an array of favorites from the songbooks of Starr and the Beatles, including “It Don’t Come Easy” and “I Wanna Be Your Man,” plus hits by Toto, Average White Band and Men at Work. Three of those bands’ key members — Toto guitarist-vocalist Steve Lukather, former Average White Bands bassist/singer Hamish Stewart and Men at Work singer-guitarist Colin Hay — are All-Starr Band veterans. Each clearly relishes still sharing the stage with a rock legend who, improbably, is now 85-going-on-just-17.

Starr was featured on drums or vocals (and sometimes both simultaneously) on all but one selection in the 103-minute concert. Still as boyishly slim as Mick Jagger, three years his junior, he was consistently compelling whether singing center stage or drumming in unison with Gregg Bissonette.

Starr joked and bantered with the audience throughout, singling out the “boat people” who watch concerts for free from the adjacent Humphreys marina.

“I love this venue,” he told the cheering crowd. “I can yell at these tight bastards who won’t even buy a ticket!”

Friday’s frequently rousing show came 64 years after Starr replaced Pete Best in 1962 as the drummer in the Beatles. It was also 62 years after the soon-to-be most influential rock band of all time won over America with its game-changing TV performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

For good measure, the concert took place 61 years after the Beatles’ sole San Diego concert in 1965 at Balboa Stadium. And it was 56 years after Starr’s first solo album, the presciently titled “Sentimental Journey,” was released just as the Beatles were imploding in early 1970.

His spirited performance Friday — like his black beard and shoulder-length hair — made him appear decades younger at Friday’s concert and he drummed and sang with admirable spunk. Starr wryly acknowledged his age during his performance of “I’m The Greatest,” the 1973 gem written by Lennon, changing the line “I’m only 32 and all I want to do is boogaloo” to “I’m way past 32 and all I want to do is boogaloo.” (At his 2012 Humphreys concert, he sang it as: “I’m only 72.”)

But Starr, who has performed at the intimate bayside venue more than 15 times since first playing there in 1995, isn’t resting on his laurels.

He has released two engaging country-music albums in the past 16 months, last year’s “Look Up” and this year’s even better “Long Long Road.” They feature him alongside such younger musical admirers as Alison Krauss, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, St. Vincent, Larkin Poe and San Diego-bred multi-instrumental wizard Stuart Duncan.

True, Starr only did one new song Friday, the flute-punctuated “Choose Love,” which quoted “Tomorrow Never Knows” and other Beatles’ songs and is the least country-sounding song from “Long Long Road.” But he delivered it with the same commitment and warmth he brought to “Act Naturally and “No No Song.” And when Starr led the crowd in call-and-response vocals on “Yellow Submarine,” the 17-year-old girl seated near me happily sang along with her beaming grandmother and the rest of the audience.

The crowd reacted with similar enthusiasm to the lively performances of Toto’s “Rosanna” and “Africa,” Men at Work’s “Who Can It Be Now” and “Down Under,” and Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces” and “Cut the Cake,” the latter two of which featured gritty tenor sax solos by Warren Ham.

A former touring member in the bands of Cher, Donna Summer and Olivia Newton John — and a 12-year All-Starr Band veteran — Ham doubled on percussion, flute and keyboards, as well as singing the high parts on “Rosanna” and several other numbers. His deft harmonica work evoked the sterling playing of Nashville music great Charlie McCoy.

Starr, as usual, topped off the night by energetically doing jumping jacks as he sang “With a Little Help From My Friends.” It’s an age-defying move that has become a trademark of this seemingly tireless force of nature, an affable artist who exults in sharing the joy of performing with his audience from start to finish.

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