Adam Sandler Was Too Scared to Talk to Paul McCartney Because Ringo Was There

Photo: Scott Yamano / Netflix

BY Alex HudsonPublished Feb 26, 2024

Celebrities are just like us, and sometimes even Adam Sandler gets nervous talking to other famous people. That's exactly what happened recently when the Sandman saw Paul McCartney in a restaurant and was too scared to speak to him — especially when he saw Ringo Starr sitting at the same table.

The two surviving Beatles were eating dinner together at a restaurant owned by one of Sandler's friends.

"I was with my wife and her friends and my friends, and they were like, 'You've met McCartney — go and say hello,'" Sandler recalled on the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. "I said, 'Yeah, yeah, absolutely.' I got up. I saw a side shot of his head. He was eating. I was like, 'Come on, man, just say hello.' And then I saw Ringo was at the table too! And he looked up and I went, 'I can't fuckin' handle it.' And I just kept going, and I ran past him."

Sandler went back to his table, where his wife convinced him to take another shot at speaking to McCartney.

Sandler recounted, "Went back in, saw the side shot, he was talking to his wife I think. I just fuckin' kept walking. Faked a hand wash in the bathroom. Then I was like, 'What are you doing, man? Go fuckin' do this — just say hello!'"

Did the little bathroom pep talk help? No! Sandler finished his story with a little digression in the third person, saying, "You know what else didn't help? Other people were watching Adam Sandler be nervous. And they were just going, 'Is he going to fuckin' talk to McCartney or not?' And I just bolted out."

Hear the podcast below. The discussion of McCarntey begins just before the 23-minute mark.

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