Ringo Starr Says 'Nothing Makes Me Feel Old' as He Turns 83: 'In My Head, I'm 27' (Exclusive)

The legendary drummer will celebrate his birthday on Friday with his annual Peace & Love event

When Ringo Starr was 23, and still drumming with the Beatles, he and his bandmates opened for a young singer named Helen Shapiro. Between sets, he'd strike up conversation with her band — and can still remember a surprising revelation from their chats.

"I was talking to the band and I said, 'Well, how old are you?' And the guy says, 'I'm 40.' '40?! And you're still doing it?'" Starr recalls to PEOPLE. "Little did I know! It's far out. But that's always stuck with me."

Though he'll turn 83 on Friday, Starr says he feels nearly the same as he did in those early days, and his work reflects that; with his All-Starr band, he continues to tour, and he has also been releasing a steady stream of EPs.

"Nothing makes me feel old. In my head, I'm 27," he says. "Wisdom's a heavy word. [Getting older] is what happens, and you try and keep yourself busy."

The Grammy-winning musician will be plenty busy this week as he celebrates his birthday with his annual Peace & Love event, during which Starr encourages all of his fans to send a wave of peace and love across the globe at noon, whether it's by tossing up his signature peace sign, posting #peaceandlove on social media, or just thinking it.

Starr and his wife Barbara will be in Los Angeles for the big moment, alongside famous pals like Joe Walsh, Sheila E, Richard Marx, Mike Campbell, Diane Warren, Roy Orbison Jr., and Edgar Winter, but there also will be celebrations in cities like Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Buenos Aires and Liverpool. NASA will also help spread the message by sending a pre-recorded message from Starr into the universe.

The feel-good event dates back to 2008, when Starr was asked in an interview what he wanted fans to get him for his birthday.

"Really without thinking, I said, 'I would like them all to go, 'Peace and love,' at noon on my birthday, 7/7, seventh day of the seventh month," he says. "That's how it started. We've been doing it now for so many years. And now I've upped it a bit because I say, 'You can say peace and love or you can just think peace and love.' So any way, you're winning."

The drummer's affinity for "peace and love" is one that stretches back to the 1960s, he says, and he jokes now that he's "more known for that and jumping jacks than the music" (He often does jumping jacks while performing on stage). For Starr, having a positive outlook on life has never been something at which he's had to work hard.

"I never felt really down," he says. "I mean, I have my moments, of course. But my spirits are high. That's all I can say, really."

Though he's been making music for more than six decades, Starr still has plenty up his sleeve. Earlier this month, fellow Beatle Paul McCartney revealed that they'll be releasing a new song using John Lennon's vocals, which have been pulled from an old demo.

Starr says the project came about with help from Get Back director Peter Jackson, who was able to isolate the late Lennon's vocals from an as-yet-unnamed recording using a machine named after Beatles roadie Mal Evans.

"This is absolutely John Lennon's voice, taken off, as neat as we can, a cassette. And that's all I can tell you!" he teases.

When asked if hearing Lennon sing once more following his death in 1980 was emotional, Starr says yes, and begins to reminisce on the Anthology series, a set of Beatles compilation albums released in the 1990s that featured similarly recorded, posthumous Lennon songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love."

"We did that in the '90s, George [Harrison], Paul and I, with the help of Jeff Lynne, who took John's voice off a cassette," he says. "Whichever way he did that, I don't know. Jeff is very… [he] dials in. And he had that job, and he was producing. When we did those two tracks, then we got to the third one, we felt we'd done enough, and we worked on it for 10 minutes."

Even decades on, Starr still seems in awe of the legacy left behind by the Beatles.

"There's an interview of the four of us — Paul was going to write songs, George was going to have a garage, and I was going to have a hairdresser. We thought that's what we'd be doing, and it would last three or four years, but it lasted eight," he says, adding in what may be the understatement of the century, "and we did a lot of great tracks."

While fans will have to wait a bit longer for more information on the forthcoming Beatles project, they'll get a taste this November, when both Starr and McCartney team up with Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood for a new version of "Let It Be" on Dolly Parton's new album Rockstar.

While Starr says he doesn't have any specific collaborations in mind as to who he'd like to work with next, he's open to ideas.

"I can be surprised," he says. "I mean, I'm on a lot of people's records. I like to do it for my friends. But sometimes people take a chance. Now I'll be inundated! No, I only do my friends [laughs]. I play the drums and then we put them on the track, and we send it back. This was what we did to Dolly's. Use me or lose me!"

He adds that he's a fan of the Los Angeles-based radio station 88.5, on which he relies to expose him to new artists.

"I'm not naming anybody because I just like to listen to them, but there are several great bands out there, girl singers out there," he says of new artists. "I mean, the biggest star in the world, Taylor. We used to meet her when she was like, 5, at the Grammys with her mother. And the beat goes on."

He continues: "That's what's great. We're blessed, as the Beatles, because each generation has a listen to us. They see, 'What does that mean to those guys?' So we're still selling records, can you believe it? And we're still remastering them, and we're still putting them in different orders and putting out outtakes. Life is good."

For the meantime, though, he's focused on his birthday — which, yes, will include one (just one!) bite of birthday cake.

"In Liverpool, you have to have a piece of the cake. I have a forkful, and that's because I have to do it. It's tradition," he says. "I'm trying to be totally sugar-free, but that's impossible."

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