Right Celebrity

Ringo Starr was set to take the stage on ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’ Tuesday when he decided not to perform and simply walked off the set.

Ringo Starr

Starr is currently making the rounds, promoting his new album, ‘Liverpool 8.’ He planned to perform the title song off the album with Eurythmics singer Dave Stewart but did not want to cut the song from approximately 4 minutes to 2 1/2 minutes or less.

Starr’s publicist, Elizabeth Freund, issued an explanation.

“We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay. Ringo left saying, `God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.’”

Representives for the show have their own version of events. A spokesperson maintains the song was actually 5 minutes and that Starr’s people had agreed to the time limitations when he was booked in November. They also said the show would “absolutely” welcome Ringo back.

Dave Stewart also had a statement, but his was a little less pc - leaving little to the imagination of where he stood on the events that occurred and what he thinks about Kelly Ripa’s butt.

Four minutes (3 minutes and 40 seconds, actually) seemed like an appropriate amount of time for a former Beatle. Mr. Gelman apparently felt Ringo’s musical legacy should take a back seat to additional banter about the size of Ms. (Kelly) Ripa’s derriere.”

Starr had previously shortened the song to 3 minutes for a performance on ‘Late Night with David Letterman’ and performed the entire song on ‘Rachael Ray’ later that day. James Brown is the only other performer who has walked off the stage at ‘Live’ due to the time restraint.

See more photos of Ringo Starr below. He loves to throw up the peace sign.

Ringo Starr Photos