Paul McCartney tells Stephen Colbert he snuck into a theater to watch Yesterday, still dreams of John Lennon

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

published 24 September 2019

"Ladies and gentlemen, you know my first guest tonight because he's Paul McCartney," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show, dispensing with the usual introduction. He first asked McCartney how he wrote so many great songs, and McCartney said he was exposed to a lot of music from his father so he had a lot of data to draw upon when he began writing his own stuff. "Plus, I'm a genius," he deadpanned. McCartney said he likes Marvin Gaye's cover of "Yesterday," and pointed out the lyrical change Frank Sinatra and others made to his song.

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After the first break, Colbert explained why he gets flustered around musicians and their magical abilities, and McCartney explained that he still finds it hard to believe he's an icon. "It's kind of him and me," he said. "Me is me, that was always in this body, and the body's just grown up," while "him is that famous guy." Colbert asked him how he deals with the emotional connections fans have to his songs, and he said "the biggest bonus you can have" as a songwriter is when a song you wrote "just to make some money" gets in people's heads and takes on a special meaning.

McCartney said that when the Beatles broke up, he started to believe that he was the "villain," as many people claimed, but a photo Colbert had of him and John Lennon writing together had brought him down to earth. "How often do you think about John?" Colbert asked. "Quite often," McCartney said. "I dream about him." He recounted some dreams. Colbert asked what he thought of the recent movie Yesterday, which McCartney said he snuck into a theater to watch. "Well, it was a pretty big plug for me!" he laughed.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.