How a 5-year-old King caught the attention of the Beatles

Thursday, July 17, 2014
How a 5-year-old King caught the attention of the Beatles
A five-year-old Los Banos boy had the opportunity of a lifetime recently to meet Ringo Starr.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A five-year-old Los Banos boy had the opportunity of a lifetime recently to meet Ringo Starr.

The little boy's name is King, and he lives and breathes Beatles music. But his story is about more than just the Beatles. It's a sovereign tale of survival, inspiration and love.

King Tobias has been listening to the fab four since he could barely walk. His mother Cali Tobias believes King was two years old when he first heard a Beatles song on a CD.

King listens to the Beatles music constantly on television, radio and CDs and even vinyl. And every nook and cranny of his room is covered in Beatle's memorabilia.

Cali says the fact that King can sing or listen to Beatles music at all is a miracle since he is the only survivor of a set of triplets. His mother says doctors had little hope King would make it. King not only survived, he's thrived. And he not only sings Beatles tunes, but four months ago he started learning to play Beatles songs

King's guitar instructor Kyle Chapman has never seen anything like it.

Kyle Chapman said, "He pretty much sees what I do and then does it. When it comes to writing it out, it doesn't really matter, he just sees, and does it."

And the two play just Beatles music because King says they have good music. He explained, "They make music that's loving people. And don't want to hurt people, just trying to love people.

King wants to make music too, and his mom wants to help him fulfill that dream. But there's an urgency now. Cali has been fighting cancer for thirteen years.

"It keeps coming back," said Cali. "No matter what I do, it keeps coming back."

Cali has had four recurrences of breast cancer, and is now fighting ovarian cancer. Knowing how precious her time is, she called to get special tickets to see Ringo Starr in concert in San Jose. One call led to another and King and Cali ended up with Ringo Star backstage.

King explains what happened, "When we met he said, 'hey brother give me a hug.' He told me I'm his brother now cuz I have zero brothers and now I have four brothers!"

Cali says King got to play Ringo's drums. "It was funny cuz they were like how long has he been playing the drums? And I was like this is his first time, and they didn't believe me."

King and Cali have tickets to see Paul McCartney at Candlestick August 14th, the very last concert at the ball park. And hopefully King will be able to meet one of his other idols that day, or as Ringo Starr told King, his other brother.