Paul's appearance Friday night on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno":

Paul and Heather were the only guests on a special Friday night edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 3. Paul did not perform any live songs on the show with the exception of "Let it Be", which he was shown performing after a commercial break. Paul sang the final chorus in a duet with a member of The Tonight Show band. The reason given for not performing any songs was that he was resting his voice for the concert tour. This was a big disappointment.
Instead, there was a lengthy interview with Paul and Heather with the previewing of a music video for a song from the DRIVING RAIN album. Jay also held up a copy of the new album cover for DRIVING RAIN which shows Paul jumping in the car with his Hofner bass. Recall how in a review of the album last year I said that the album cover SUCKS bigtime and needs to be replaced. The original photo was grainy, b & w, and out of focus and showed Paul raising his hand. What were they thinking? Duh? The new cover is much better.

Also, "Freedom" probably should have stayed a bonus CD single track and not been dumped on the album at the last minute. It is amateurish and it shows...it really SHOWS.

Paul hit it off with the audience and with Jay. Paul talked about "The Beatles sandwich", a time when a window was blown out of their touring van in cold weather when they had to sleep on top of each other to keep warm. He also talked about the early days of Wings, when he would drop in on college campuses in Britain to play concerts. He explained that they only had 11 songs and had to stretch them. Heather talked about the first meeting with Paul and about their campaigns against landmines. Heather wore a T-shirt that advocated the abolition of landmines. Paul received a huge ovation during his announcement and appearance. Leno quipped that it was"Lenomania" but then admitted it was not really for him. Paul looked and sounded great. Macca is definitely having a renaissaince and renascence musically and personally. It is great to see.

Paul sounded great in the snippet of "Let it Be" that he performed with The Tonight Show band. The Band also performed "Live and Let Die" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" during the commercial breaks.

The only disappointment was that Paul did not perform live or read from his poetry book. The music video was amazing though.

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I was lucky enough to go to the Tonight Show taping Friday night
with Paul - here are some details from the show:
The audience was crazed for Paul and began screaming even during
Jay's warmup. Of the 350 seats, it looked as if about one-fourth of
them were filled with people who had camped out overnight to get the
tickets given out the morning of the show (there was a show of
hands). Most of the people in the floor seats came from this group
and many wore Beatles/Wings/Driving USA Tour T-shirts. I could feel
the excitement as soon as I entered the studio!
Paul was scheduled to perform two songs but the staff was notified
Thursday night that he wasn't feeling 100% and wanted to save his
voice for the weekend concerts. He did seem to have a bit of a cold
at the show. I think that Paul would have been on most of the hour
(minus the monologue time) had he performed - this is why it was
promoted this way.
The audience went bananas when he came out onstage - everyone on
their feet and screaming! He looked as good (if not better) in person
as on the broadcast! During the commercials after Paul's intro, the
band played 1) Come Together 2) I Want You and 3) Let It Be. Paul
sang off and on to each one, talked to Jay (and Heather) and watched
the band. He led the audience in singing the "right now"s in "Come
Together"; watched intently as Kevin Eubanks wailed the lead for "I
Want You" and Paul gave him several smiles and gestures of approval
(you can see one on the air after commercial); finally, it looked
like he couldn't stand it anymore and jumped up and ran across the
stage to join Vicki Randall (Tonight Show band singer) at the mike in
the middle of "Let It Be." He sang for about a minute and a half with
her and traded riffs, matching her bluesy style. He sounded great -
not the usual rendition! At one point, she was so excited and
flustered she forgot the words. Paul jumped right in and sang TO her
until she got it together again! I've never seen him sing nose to
nose with anyone and he seemed perfectly comfortable - and happy -
doing it. As you can imagine, the audience went nuts again as he ran
over to the mike!!
During the show, Paul watched the videos - during the concert
video, his eyes got big and he raised his eyebrows when he (onscreen
at the concert) hit the high note in "Hey Jude." During the "Loving
Flame" video, he watched the first third or so then turned to talk to
Jay and Heather. You may have heard the audience scream during the
video - Paul rose out of his chair to goose the audience as he had at
the start of the show. Very funny - everyone laughed, including him!
During the first commercial, a man (talent coordinator?) went to
the couch to talk to him. Paul patted his jacket and said he didn't
have it (reading lips can be useful!). The guy ran off, came back
with "it" and Paul put "it" in his pocket - NOW he could show off his
new NYPD badge in the next segment.
When the show ended, a guy in the audience yelled out, "Hey, Paul,
I need 2 tickets for tomorrow night!" Paul acknowleged him, patted
all around his jacket, mimed coming up empty and said, "Sorry, man!"
He waved several times to the audience and escorted Heather backstage.
Security was tight. After the show, I went out to the parking area
by the stage but everyone was cleared away by Paul's security people.
Paul had his own team (who watched the audience during the show) and
NBC put on extra security for the show. Unlike Paul's Tonight Show
visit in 1984 (when he arrived with a friend in a white Corvette),
this time he left in a limo with Heather (he saw to her getting in
the car and closed her door himself then went around and got in the
other side). His security people got into another limo and a Burbank
motorcycle cop escorted them away from the studio. About 30
employees/fans/lookieloos (including me) had been sent to an area
about 40 feet from the cars - when Paul's limo pulled out, he rolled
down the window and smiled and waved to everybody, about 5 feet from
us.
One little side note: before the show, some of the show staff and
crew came into the Green Room to check out the nightly food spread.
Veggies were in the chafing dish and everyone kept saying, "What's
this about??" Finally, someone explained (with a smile) that TONIGHT
even the sandwiches were vegetarian - three guesses why...
IT WAS A GREAT TIME!! I hope you got to see it!
Laurie