Great McCartney story!
I have a similar story for my item. I think of comedy the way many others think of music. My British Invasion was in the early 1970s when five Brits and a Yank hit the airwaves. Monty Python's Flying Circus. I was smitten. I saw their movies, watched the show religiously, etc. When I heard that the boys were crossing the pond on tour I pestered my parents relentlessly until they agreed to take my 11 year old butt over to the City Center in NYC to see the show. Fast-forward 30 years and a continent away. I am in a book store in Los Angeles one Sunday morning when I hear an unmistakeable voice asking for a new book on Voltaire. Eric Idle. An actual living, breathing Python. I froze like a deer in headlights, which never happened to me before when collecting autographs, but this was a PYTHON. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, always look on the bright side of life, Sir Robin nearly fighting the giant chicken of Bristol, upper class twit of the year, Rutle in chief Eric-freakin'-Idle. My wife snapped me out of it and got me moving my legs over there, where I babbled the usual nonsense about idolizing the Pythons forever and got a signature on the back of my business card. I've gotten some good autographs in person but that one was instantly my favorite. I then commissioned an artist friend to design a custom card around my autograph. And now for something completely different:
