LI's Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney to chat about John Lennon
Alec Baldwin, left, talks with Paul McCartney in an interview airing Friday on Sirius XM to celebrate what would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday. Credit: Composite: Getty Images / Jon Kopaloff, left; Getty Images / Tim P. Whitby
Beatles superfan Alec Baldwin has interviewed Paul McCartney for a SiriusXM radio show airing Friday, kicking off a weeklong celebration on what would have been the late John Lennon's 80th birthday.
"Paul McCartney sat down with me for an exclusive interview to reflect on his songwriting partner and friend, John Lennon," Baldwin, 62, wrote on Instagram Tuesday. The special airs Friday at 11 a.m. on The Beatles Channel (18), with repeat airings throughout the weekend.
"It's lovely to think he would have been 80," music legend McCartney, 78, tells Long Island native Baldwin in a preview posted online, "And y'know … it's nice to imagine him at 80," the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer adds, chuckling.
"People say to me, 'What do you think John would be like?' I think he would be very literate," McCartney says. "I think he would be writing not necessarily just music, because he was starting to get into … he did a couple of little books. And I think he would have matured nicely."
Emmy Award winner Baldwin on his website writes that in 2010, when McCartney was among the recipients of that year's Kennedy Center Honors, "[I]n the ultimate expression of my limitless Beatle fandom, I was given the chance to present" the medallion to him.
The week of programming honoring Lennon, who was assassinated outside his Manhattan apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, also includes "The Ballad of John and Yoko: 1969," featuring archival audio of Lennon and his wife, multimedia artist Yoko Ono; the couple's son, musician Sean Ono Lennon, in conversation with music journalist and critic David Fricke; the two-part "Imagine Special," focusing on Lennon's classic 1971 album "Imagine," with original masters, alternate versions and interviews; and more.
