Austin Butler’s favourite Elvis Presley song
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Credit: Alamy
The nostalgic Elvis Presley story Paul McCartney told Austin Butler
They say never meet your heroes, but when Austin Butler, the star of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, met Paul McCartney, it was quite the opposite. It became one of the most cherished moments and a life-affirming one where he had to pinch himself.
Recently, when appearing on The Late Late Show with James Corden, the actor retold the tale of first meeting Paul McCartney and the incredible anecdote the former Beatles man told him about ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ himself, Elvis Presley. Starting the tale, Butler clarified: “I’m an enormous Beatles fan and an enormous Paul McCartney fan.”
It was through McCarney’s daughter, Stella, that this experience came to fruition: “So what happened was, I was going to this cafe a lot in London, where I ended up becoming friends with Stella McCartney, and so we became very friendly. And then when I was in Paris, actually, it was during the fashion week out there, I wasn’t doing any fashion week, I wasn’t walking product, but I was there and I kind of was under the radar.”
Butler continued: “But she heard that I was there, and so she called me and she said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re in Paris, would you be able to come to my show tomorrow morning at 11 am?’, and I said, ‘Well, Stella, I’m on a train heading back to London at 11 am, so I don’t know if I can.’ She said, ‘Well, if you can get your train moved, you come to my show at 11, and you can ride the train back with me and my dad.'”
Understandably, Butler did everything in his power to get a spot on the train that Stella and her dad were travelling on, but there were no seats available. He called Stella back, apologising, stating that he really didn’t think he could make it. Reflecting the kind of celebrity he was talking to, she didn’t fret, saying: “Let me see what my dad can do”.
Two minutes later, Stella phoned Butler back, informing him that he had a seat with her and Paul.
Butler went to Stella’s show, and it was here that he was approached by a friendly Paul McCartney, who said: “I hear we’re riding the train together.” After the show finished, the trio got in a car and drove to the Paris train station. They went through customs, ate peanuts in the lounge, and then got on the train.
At this point, Butler could not believe what was happening, as he explained that normally when he meets people he admires, it is in the most fleeting of ways, usually in a crowd for two seconds. As soon as they sat down on the train, though, Butler knew this time it was different, as they were “locked in a train together.” He recalled: “We just talked and he was so human and it was just amazing.”
Unsurprisingly, the attention turned to Elvis Presley, the man Butler was playing in Luhrmann’s acclaimed biopic at one point. Butler knew this was his moment. He asked Paul what Elvis was like, and he told a famous tale of going to Elvis’s house in Beverly Hills.
Butler had heard this story before, but the version that McCartney recounted diverted from the standard one, as he revealed a minor detail. Playing in the background on Elvis’s jukebox was the Charlie Rich classic ‘Mohair Sand’, and whilst Paul was on this heady trip down memory lane, whilst astounded at such a vivid depiction of one of the all-time greats, Butler wasn’t aware of the song.
Stella McCartney found the track on her phone and gave an earphone each to Butler and her father. As the French countryside whizzed past outside, McCartney was drumming on the table and singing the track with glee as he and Butler shared a moment listening to the same song he listened to with Elvis all those years ago.
The ever humble Butler disclosed that he couldn’t believe that “this was my life right now”.
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