THE Beatles drummer Ringo Starr revealed his shock at being knighted in the New Year honours - after his investiture at Buckingham Palace.
The 77-year-old, who received the honour under his real name, Sir Richard Starkey, for services to music, insisted it had come as a complete surprise.
“It means a lot. I’m sort of shocked in a way,” Starr said. “I was sitting in LA and the letter came and I was so surprised. But I think it’s an honour.
“A lot of people I don’t know wrote letters saying ‘congratulations, it’s about time,’ but for me the time is when it arrives, and that’s now. I just never thought of it. I just got on with my life and here we are.”
Starr’s knighthood came more than 50 years after he and band-mates John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, visited the palace to receive MBEs.
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