Paul McCartney shared memories of The Beatles, talked about his friendship with Michael Jackson and gave an historic performance on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater during his visit to the LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN, Wednesday, July 15.

            McCartney, who 45 years ago made his American television debut with The Beatles at the Ed Sullivan Theater on "The Ed Sullivan Show," took the very same stage once again tonight to talk to Letterman.  The host asked McCartney if it means anything to come back to the venue tonight, and the music legend said, "Yes, it really, does, actually...You know, I was just thinking today when we first came here, we'd never seen this kind of thing.  TV studios in England were kind of all on one floor, the makeup was next door to this...But here, it's like an apartment block - you know, you go to makeup and you take an elevator five floors, then you go to wardrobe and you come here.  But, yeah, just the memory of being here is great.  It was kind of scary the first time."  McCartney also recalled that during one "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance, that while waiting to go on, "the audience was out there, and we were kind of very new to America - loving it, but a little bit scared, and I had to do ‘Yesterday,' my song, on my own, and I'd never done this, I'd always had the band with me, but suddenly they said, ‘You're doing ‘Yesterday,' so I said, ‘Okay.'  So I was standing there - ‘come on, get it together, it's okay' - and the floor manager, the guy on the curtain came up to me and said, ‘You nervous?'  I said, ‘No.' He said, ‘You should be, there's 73 million people watching.'"  Letterman joked, "Well, sadly, you won't have that problem tonight."

            Letterman said that his impression of The Beatles "was four guys on a very, very long Spring Break, just like the best time four guys could ever have."  McCartney said, "Well, it certainly seemed like that, you know, yeah.  It was, yeah, it was definitely a great thing.  I say because we'd sort of got popular in Liverpool, England, by the time we came here, we were ready for it.  So, you know, we went down - you say Spring Break, we went down to Miami.  The British car firm loaned us an MG each, and, you know, there was a beach and sand and girls, and, come on!"

            Letterman also asked McCartney how, in the late 1960s, rumors surfaced that the musician was actually dead, and McCartney said, "What happened was we did a cover for a record called Abbey Road...and the idea was to walk across the crossing and I showed up that day with sandals, flip-flops and so it was so hot that I kicked them off and walked across barefooted.  So this started some rumor that because he was barefooted, he's dead.  I couldn't see the connection myself."  As the audience laughed, Letterman joked, "Seems like a long, slow, difficult death - being barefooted will kill you."  The host asked McCartney how he managed with a global rumor like that, and McCartney said, "I mean, you know, I just laughed and it and knew it was because of the fame and the craziness.  It was American DJs, so you guys are to blame.  Not you personally, but - you know, the thing is, you know, I just laughed it off, but it was a little bit strange ‘cause people did start looking at me like, ‘Is it, is it him or a very good double?'" "Well, that was the idea," Letterman said, "that was the other part of it, that there was a guy who looked like you taking pictures taking your place," and McCartney had the audience laughing when he pointed to himself said, ‘Well, no, this is him."  Letterman then added, "Or is it?"

            Another topic they touched upon was McCartney's friendship with Michael Jackson.  About working together, McCartney said, "It was great, we had a great time.  It was Christmas and I was at home and my phone rang and, you know, a little voice talked to me and I said, ‘Who's this?', you know, kind of guarding my privacy, private number.  I said, ‘Who's this?' ‘It's Michael.'  ‘Michael who?' because I thought it was, you know, a little bit sort of dodgy, but anyway, he said ‘Michael Jackson' and he said, ‘You want to make some hits?'  So I said, ‘Yeah, sure,' so, you know, being of the hitmaking variety," a comment which drew lots of laughter and applause from the audience.  "So we did," McCartney continued, "and it was really nice.  You know, he came to my house and we got to know the family and stuff, and he had a great guy who used to come with him, a guy called Billy, so it was very nice.  We had a really good time.  We made a couple of records together, did a video and were very good friends.  It actually kind of fell apart a little bit later because he was talking to me and asking my business advice, and one of the things I said to him was, ‘Think about getting into music publishing.' And he looked at me, and I thought he was joking, he said, ‘I'm going to get yours.'  So, you know, I kind of thought, ‘Oh, you!'  But it turned out to be true, which was, you know, that was cool, somebody had to get it, I suppose.  But, and what happened, actually, then I started to ring him up, ‘cause I thought, ‘Okay, here's the guy historically placed to give Lennon-McCartney a good deal at last,' because we'd got signed when we were 21 or something in a back alley in Liverpool and the deal had remained the same even though we made this company the most famous - hugely successful.  So I kept thinking it was time for a raise, you know.  Well, you would, you know?  And, so it was great...but I did talk to him about it, but he kind of blanked me on it.  He kept saying, ‘That's just business, Paul, you know,' so I went, ‘Yeah, it is,' and waited for a reply.  But we never kind of got to it and I thought, ‘Mmmmm,' so we kind of drifted apart.  It was no big bust-up.  We kind of drifted apart after that.  But he was a lovely man, massively talented and we miss him."

            After the interview, McCartney and his band then took to the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater, overlooking Broadway and a sea of thousands of fans to perform The Beatles classic "Get Back" and the song "Sing the Changes" from his latest album, Electric Arguments, which he released under the name The Fireman.  After his LATE SHOW performance, McCartney performed an exclusive additional set of songs for the crowd, which will be webcast at the LATE SHOW website at CBS.com (http://www.cbs.com/late_show) and also at TV.com (http://www.tv.com/) this evening.

            McCartney's entire interview plus his performances of "Get Back" and "Sing the Changes" can be seen on the LATE SHOW tonight, Wednesday, July 15 (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

            The LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN is a production of Worldwide Pants Incorporated.  Barbara Gaines, Maria Pope, Jude Brennan and Rob Burnett are the executive producers.

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Press Contact:  Kim Izzo-Emmet          212-975-3820 krizzo-emmet@cbs.com

Photo Contact: Jeffrey Staab                212-975-4107 jrstaab@cbs.com