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Talk Show Host James Corden Recalls Convincing Paul McCartney Revisit Childhood Home In New Interview

Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Apple Films

In June 2018,  The Late Late Show host James Corden‘s ‘Carpool Karaoke‘ segment delivered one of its most memorable installments.

Shot on location in Liverpool, the episode saw Corden and Paul McCartney touring the former Beatle‘s hometown.

Paul, in addition to delivering impromptu renderings of several Beatles classics, revealed candid details about his life, including a reflection on his mother, Mary McCartney‘s death in 1956.

But of all the segment’s scenes, the most memorable arrives when McCartney returns to his childhood home.

In a recently published New Yorker profile Corden recounts the efforts he went to convince McCartney to return to 20 Forthlin Road for the first time in more than half a century.

Initially, McCartney did not wish to visit the property.

He said, ‘I haven’t been there since I left when I was [18 or] 20,” Corden shares.

The host, however, was adamant that the former Beatle return: “I went, ‘Paul, your only job today is to have a great time. So, if there is anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, we’re not going to do it.’

But even though Paul McCartney agreed Corden was still nervous.

When we pulled up outside,” he confides, “I thought, ‘Oh, man, I wish we’d devised a code word instead’, because what if he’s giving me The Look?”

As they approach the home during the segment, the usually confident McCartney visibly becomes quite nervous.

Corden’s anxiety though ultimately turns out to be misplaced.

As Paul McCartney leads Corden into the house, his nerves quickly fade and he becomes visibly elated as he shows those present where his father James McCartney cooked, a room referenced in the lyrics to ‘A Day In The Life’ and the space where and John Lennon used to play music together.

It just makes me realize how long the journey has been to date,” Paul shared with Corden.

McCartney would move from the house during the early Sixties in a bid to find respite from the fanatical Beatles fans loitering around the house day and night fans and his family would later follow suit.

You can read Corden’s full New Yorker profile here.

 

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