NEW YORK (RNS) More than 40 years after they traveled to India to study transcendental meditation, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will reunite for the cause.
The only two surviving Beatles, who rarely appear in public together, will perform at “Paul McCartney and Friends: Change Begins Within,” an April 4 benefit at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Proceeds will go to the meditation-promoting David Lynch Foundation, with the goal of teaching a million at-risk children to meditate.
McCartney said in a news release he has benefited from practicing meditation over the last four decades.
“In moments of madness, it has helped me find moments of serenity,” he said. Of the goal to help children learn to meditate, he added, “I would like to think that it would help provide them a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world.”
In the same news release, Starr called the aims of the charity “wonderful.”
It is not known to what extent McCartney and Starr will perform together. Other performers will include Sheryl Crow, Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Paul Horn, Bettye LaVette and Jim James (of the band My Morning Jacket).
Donovan and Horn studied transcendental meditation along with the Beatles in India, in 1968. Their instructor, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died last year.
Filmmaker Lynch (“Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive,” “The Elephant Man”) will serve as a presenter at the event, as will other celebrities including Russell Simmons and Laura Dern.
