Late Late Show’s Carpool Karaoke snagged Paul McCartney for this year’s London visit. It’s not so much karaoke and, technically, not so much “carpool” either with lots of trips down Beatles Liverpool Memory Lane, or Penny Lane to be more precise.
The barber shop still is there. They stop and say hello. A photo of Paul, getting his hair cut by John Lennon, hangs on the wall.
“Your music is so full of positivity and joy and a message of love and togetherness, I feel like it’s more relevant today than it’s maybe ever been,” said Corden the day after Late Late Show opened with Corden talking about the “human decency issue” of 2,300 immigrant children forcibly removed from their parents by the United States government.
“I’ve never really witnessed anything like it,” Corden says when asked about the reaction of passersby (many of whom posted photos of Corden and McCartney on social media when they shot the segment last Saturday). “I’ve always heard the phrase ‘traffic came to a standstill’ and I always thought that would be an exaggeration until traffic genuinely came to a standstill.
There was one moment when were stood in the bus shelter on Penny Lane and no cars were moving and no horns were beeping — it was just a mass of people looking at Paul and every single person there wanted to shake his hand. I’ve never seen someone get mobbed so respectfully. People wanted to thank him for what he’s given to them. Just to watch it happen was beautiful.”
“It’s never that he’s difficult, ever, it’s that it’s what you’re dealing with,” says Corden of McCartney, who’s expected to drop his latest album any day now. “You know, quite possibly he’s one of the most famous people on planet Earth and certainly one of the most respected … I take great pride, and it’s a testament to the power of the segment — we’ve been having this discussion for about six months — that he would want people to hear some of his newest work and come back with such a bang [on ‘Carpool Karaoke’].
