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Austin Butler on the Pinch-Me Moment He Met Paul McCartney: 'I Can't Believe This Is My Life'

Austin Butler , Paul McCartney
Austin Butler , Paul McCartney

Mike Marsland/WireImage; Karwai Tang/WireImage

Austin Butler is rubbing shoulders with living legends.

The Elvis star, 30, who considers himself an "enormous Paul McCartney fan," opened up about getting to meet the famed Beatles alum during his appearance on Thursday's episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden.

The actor recounted bonding with the singer's fashion designer daughter Stella McCartney at a cafe in London, before she invited him to her show at Paris Fashion Week. Although he had to be on a train back to London at that time, Stella, 50, convinced him to go to the show and take the train back with herself and Paul, 80.

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"Suddenly, we're on the train," Butler said, adding: "We're talking. It's that thing where you tend to meet people that you really admire in a crowd and you can't speak for more than two seconds. But with this, suddenly we're locked in a train together. And so, we just talked and he was so human, and it was just amazing."

"At one point, Stella said something about Elvis," he continued. "And I took that as my moment. I said, 'Paul, I haven't met many people who actually had the opportunity to be in a room with Elvis. What was it like? What was your story?'"

ELVIS
ELVIS

Hugh Stewart/Warner Bros.

The Carrie Diaries alum recounted Paul's anecdote of driving to Elvis Presley's Beverly Hills home with the Beatles. "They knock on the door and Elvis answers, and he's beautiful," he said.

"At first, they didn't know what to say to him, they're just looking at him. Then, Elvis picks up a bass guitar and starts fiddling around, and Paul said, 'You know, I play the bass.' So, then Paul picks up the bass and Elvis picks up a guitar and they started jamming together," Butler added.

He explained that they played together to "Mohair Sam" by Charlie Rich on the jukebox, which Butler had never heard. On the train, Paul asked Stella to pull up the song, and she gave one headphone to each of them.

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"Suddenly, I'm sitting on the train across from Paul McCartney. The French countryside is going by, and she plays the song he listened to with Elvis all those years ago," Butler said. "And he's drumming it out on the table and singing the song to me. And those are those moments where you just gotta pinch yourself and go, 'I can't believe this is my life right now.' Then he gave me a hug and we went our separate ways."

Butler can currently be seen playing the late King of Rock and Roll in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, which follows the titular star's rise to fame and his relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), as well as his blossoming love with wife Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).