The first time Ringo Starr visited the store it was in 1989 when his All-Star-Band had just started performing. It was a short, sweet, and very British encounter. But years later, the entire staff at Sam Ash was hit hard by a Ringo reality check.

I was perched as usual at the front counter checking the previous days’ sales reports when I was startled by the legendary Beatle’s appearance. As he strolled through the store he kept saying out loud to know no one in particular, “good morning mate” over and over again. A fine English gentleman, indeed. But just as I prepared to approach him, he floated out as quickly as he came. Before I had a chance shake his hand, he was back on west 48th street heading towards Radio City Music hall just down the block on 6th ave. He was hosting the All-stars concert later that night.   (The impressive band members of his all star band in 1989 included Joe Walsh, Billy Preston and Dr.John. They performed a few of their own hits as well as backed up each other during the concert. Of course, Ringo bedazzled audiences when performed crowd pleasers such as “Yellow submarine” and  “It don’t come easy”. )

But a couple of years later, one of the talented musicians in Ringo’s all-star band, Greg Lake, helped us recover from this sorely missed opportunity by sharing an unbelievable Ringo anecdote.  Greg Lake — best known as one of the members of the 70’s progressive rock super group ELP (Emmerson Lake & Palmer) and for having a great voice and awesome musicianship —   stopped in the store, looking for a Martin acoustic guitar. A former member of the original “King Crimson”, he told the staff that he was joining the Ringo all-stars on the final leg of their tour and needed  “a nice sounding small body acoustic.”  I went up stairs to the stock room and pulled down a beautiful limited edition custom Martin acoustic  00016 model.   I had the pleasure of designing this guitar with Sammy Ash and the custom shop staff of the Martin guitar company. It had a bear claw fancy spruce top, snow flake inlays on the fret board, ebony tuning machine buttons, and was signed inside by Chris MartinIV  and Jerry Ash. (One of the most rewarding aspects of my career has been my involvement in the designing of new instruments. I have worked with Fender guitars, Gibson guitars and of course Martin acoustic guitars.)

Greg inspected it carefully.

As he played around with it and strummed a few chords, he started causally speaking about his involvement with Ringo.  “When I was at Ringo’s estate in the UK, Ringo asked me to bring over an evenlope that was sitting there on the table.  Ringo then asked me to open it and guess what was inside?”  I could not even imagine what was inside?  I blurted out,  “was it  the song set list for the All-stars gigs?” Or maybe it was your Allstars contact already finalized?  “No,” Greg said. His eyes lit up: “It was a royalty  check payable to Ringo Starr for 28 million dollars!” The  sales staff  gathered around Greg  stood dumb founded. The check was for the ‘BEATLES 1’  project, the latest release of their number 1 songs. It was a huge seller proving once again that the Beatles are still #1!  As we all stood there with our mouths wide open ,the only thing I could think of at that moment was that, I hope this guy does not dare ask me for a discount on the Martin acoustic!

Lesson Learned- listen to your customers before you offer a deal of any kind.