Inspiration can come from a lot of places, and for Sir Paul McCartney one of those places was Jamaica, where the musician had a chance meeting with Dustin Hoffman.
The Graduate actor, 89, recalled the story of his first meeting with the legendary Beatle in his recently published memoir Look at Me.
Coincidentally, both Hoffman and McCartney found themselves in Jamaica in 1973. The actor had been in the country filming historical adventure Papillon, with the musician there to “check out the reggae scene”.
Hoffman said that he had heard McCartney wanted to meet him, stating: “I was flattered, of course, but to tell you the truth I wasn’t a big Beatles fan at that point. I was into jazz and considered myself to be above pop music [...] I’ve since seen the error of my ways.”
He then invited McCartney to have lunch at the house where the studio had put him up. “The day Paul came over, we sat in the backyard at a table chatting for a while, and at some point, I went to the bathroom. When I returned, he was gone,” he said.
“I was waiting for what seemed like ages; eventually I got up to look for him. I found him in the kitchen playing his guitar and singing for the staff. They were totally enthralled. He was a troubadour out of the 16th century who would play his guitar at the drop of a hat for anyone who wanted to listen.”
Once McCartney “eventually” returned to the table, Hoffman said: “We sat down together and smoked a joint.”
As they smoked the marijuana, Hoffman regaled McCartney with stories about Picasso, who had died that year, including the painter’s unusual schedule and the final toast he’d shared with his friends.
“I told all this to Paul McCartney, quite stoned on ganja, while he sat there listening to me silently, holding his guitar,” he said. “I was going on and on, until eventually I said, ‘Jesus, what’s wrong with me? Here I am sitting with Paul McCartney and not shutting my mouth for 20 minutes.’”
McCartney shocked the actor, however, when he picked up his guitar “without missing a beat” and performed his words back to him as part of a “wonderful” song.
“It was like a little miracle,” Hoffman recalled. “Three o’clock in the morning/ I’m getting ready for bed/ It came without a warning/ But I’ll be waiting for you, baby/ I’ll be waiting for you there/ So drink to me, drink to my health/ You know I can’t drink anymore.”
The lyrics would go on to feature in the 1973 song “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” by Paul McCartney and Wings.
Elsewhere in his autobiography, Hoffman opened up about the “terrible experience” of shooting the classic 1967 film The Graduate. The actor claimed that he was slapped on camera 27 times by co-star Katharine Ross, at the behest of director Mike Nichols.
Earlier this week, during an appearance on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, Hoffman also recalled being held at gunpoint by the husband of a woman he was having an affair with.
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