'Starstruck' Stephen Colbert forgot his questions mid-interview — so his iconic guest had to take over
It seems like Stephen Colbert was starstruck after meeting Paul McCartney in person! In September 2019, the 'Here Comes the Sun,' hitmaker stopped by 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' to promote his picture book for children titled 'Hey Grandude!' which was inspired by a term his grandchild called him. Throughout the episode, the talk show host had an awestruck expression on his face. In the episode, Colbert confessed, "I don't often get in any way starstruck with a guest. People ask me, 'Oh, a politician comes on.' Do you ever... because I kind of know what they do. When I have a musician on, especially one I admire, I can get a little starstruck because what musicians do is mysterious to me. There's some magic in it that you're able to reach out into our hearts and our minds and souls, and you change something. And that's real magic."
As per The Things, McCartney said, "I agree." Following that, Colbert found it hard to read the next question and went on to say, "Now I can't remember my question because I'm actually." Then, McCartney grabbed the card from Colbert's hands and tried to help him out. At that point, McCartney jokingly remarked, "What it was, was-" Meanwhile, Colbert tried to regain his composure and attempted to get the conversation back on track.
After a while, Colbert exclaimed, "So, in some ways, it's a little bit difficult to talk to Paul McCartney because you are Paul McCartney, even though you are just a lovely guy. You're just a guy, right?" In his response, McCartney said, “You know, the thing is, I am still that little kid that grew up in Liverpool. Ok, I got really famous, but I’m here. I’m still that little kid. So, I'm amazed at like the audience's reaction and stuff because it's like I still don't believe it. You know, and the way I think, just when I’m at home, I’m just slobbing out watching television. So, it’s kind of ‘him’ and me. I am me, who was always in this body, and the body’s just grown up. Then ‘he’ is like [a] famous guy. He’s very famous.”
Elsewhere in the episode, McCartney stated that the moment The Beatles disbanded in 1970 marked another trying time in his life. In addition to this, McCartney also shed light on his relationship with his bandmate, John Lennon. “A lot of the talk was that I was the villain and that John and I didn’t really get on well, and I kind of bought into it," McCartney said on the episode, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Despite the rumors surrounding his relationship with Lennon, McCartney stated that they were still friends. Along with this, the Grammy winner also mentioned that he still thinks about Lennon 'quite often.' McCartney shared, “I dream about him. When you’ve had a relationship like that for so long, such a deep relationship, I love it when people revisit you in your dreams. I often have bad dreams. I have a lot of dreams about John.”
