Granted, the field of competition isn’t as wide as it used to be, but, still, I can’t imagine the ever-genial Paul would’ve walked off “Live with Regis and Kelly” after being told that he needed to shorten the length of his song.
I’m not saying it’s not a little ridiculous that the show’s producer, Michael Gelman, said that Ringo’s song had to be a mere two and a half minutes or less – that’s a pretty paltry time frame, even for a pop song – but Gelman apparently offered to barter with Ringo and cut down his chat time in favor of giving him more time for a song, and Ringo instead opted to hit the highway. Well, he was probably riding on the high of knowing that he’ll be getting an upcoming episode of “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” all to himself, but, still, it smacks of a bit of a tantrum to me.
I have to say, though, that Dave Stewart – the former Eurythmic who’s serving as Ringo’s current musical director – had the best quote about the matter:
“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. Ripa’s derriere.”
You go, Dave!
