Las Vegas Weekly

April 19, 2009 · 10:07 PM

Paul McCartney draws star-studded audience and evokes memories

By Robin Leach

Andre Agassi and Donny Osmond at the Paul McCartney concert in The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Photo: TVT

David Spade, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff and Donny Osmond were in high roller Suite No. 5 for Paul McCartney’s concert tonight in The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Donny told us his McCartney moment.

“I was in a Paris hotel in the ’80s, and I answered a knock at the door to find Paul and his young daughter there wanting my autograph. I was speechless. Couldn’t believe it. So I signed, and they left to go back to their suite next door.

Three years later, I am in a video edit in London, and Paul is in the edit suite next door. I go in and ask him if he remembered asking me for my autograph in Paris. He said yes, and that it was the only time in his entire life he’d asked for one because his daughter Mary was our biggest fan.”

Photo: TVT

David Spade.

I told them my Beatles moment was unforgettable because I was the first journalist to turn down manager Brian Epstein’s invitation to chronicle their first trip to Hamburg, Germany. I asked my friend Derek Taylor to go instead, and he wound up becoming president of Apple. Maybe Derek would be writing Vegas Deluxe today?

I learned that Paul hired Wolfgang Puck’s local chefs for all the organic vegetarian meals he mandated for the tour crew. They made eight trips to Whole Foods for the daylong menu items.

Andre told me, “After I won Wimbledon for the first time, Paul asked me for a souvenir for his daughter. So I sent him the racquet from the final set and signed it, but I never got to meet him.”

Planet Hollywood chieftain Robert Earl took Donald Trump to the concert after they attended the Miss USA 2009 Pageant, which Donald owns along with Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe. They went backstage after the two and a half hour show.

Click HERE for our editor Johnny Kats’ take on Sir Paul’s show. I loved it. Steffi, Andre and Donny thought it was “incredible,” and in the final seven-song set, all of us were dancing in the suite.

Andre told me that Steffi and he also had watched The Killers at the new Joint on Friday night. “We took the night off in between for a family barbecue,” he laughed. “Don’t think we could have done three straight nights of rock and roll! Could Vegas have asked for a better weekend of music and entertainment? Paul was phenomenal. What a show. What an experience!”

Click HERE for The Killers review and photo gallery from the Friday night opening gig!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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