‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Legend Ron Howard Revealed What It’s Like to Sit Down with Paul McCartney

It’s not too often that you hear what it’s like when one star sits down with another. But Ron Howard from The Andy Griffith Show can help us scratch that itch.

Ron Howard is a many of many talents. He is a film producer, director, and actor. Classic television fans will recall that he first rose to prominence as a child actor. Howard guest-starred in several TV classics like The Twilight Zone.

But he really hit the big time when he got the role of Opie Taylor, the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show. Later as an adult, Howard became a household name for playing Richie Cunningham in the 1970s sitcom Happy Days.

Speaking of which, did you know that Ron Howard also directed the 2016 documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years? The film followed the English rock band during their touring years from 1962 until 1966.

The Andy Griffith Show’ Star Sits Down with Paul McCartney

There was only one way The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years was going to be produced accurately. And that was with the cooperation of Paul McCartney and Ringo Star — the co-lead vocalist/bassist and the drummer for the Beatles, respectively. Meanwhile, The Andy Griffith Show’s Ron Howard directed the documentary. He also served as a producer as well.

Howard spoke out about the experience of sitting down with the two Beatles legends in a 2017 interview.

“I was really relieved, you know, by the reaction from Paul and Ringo,” Howard told BAFTA at their Nominees Roundtable. “And I did notice something — that the first interview was fine. But having looked at all of the other interviews it was more or less the stories you kind of had heard.”

However, The Andy Griffith Show star admitted that the two music icons began to open up more as their interview process continued. Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were starting to get a sense of how Howard and the other producers wanted the film to go.

“And then the second time we went and sat down with them — each of them separately — they had seen some bits of the movie and they kind of saw the tone we were going for. And they really opened up more.”

You can watch the entire interview down below:

The Beatles Documentary was Released in 2016

The film wound up being released in theaters on September 15, 2016. The release was in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Just a couple of days later, it was available to stream on the popular streaming service, Hulu.

It also went on to win a number of awards and nominations. Some of those include Best Documentary at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

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