The stars aligned for Paul McCartney 15 years ago this Tuesday, July 18th, 2008, when he joined Billy Joel on stage for the final concert at New York's Shea Stadium.
McCartney, as a member of The Beatles, played the first concert ever held at Shea, home of baseball's New York Mets, on August 15th, 1965.
Billy had invited him, but it wasn't until he was on his way to the stadium that Paul called him to say he was boarding a flight in London to New York but didn't think he'd make it.
Calls were made and Paul's commercial flight was cleared airspace to allow it to land early at John F. Kennedy International Airport. From there, he was hurried through customs and given a police escort for the 10-mile drive to Shea, where he joined Billy and his band for The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Let it Be."
Ironically, McCartney was driven to the stage by Pete Flynn, the head groundskeeper, who did the same thing for The Beatles in 1965. The whole scenario was documented in Billy's 2010 documentary, The Last Play at Shea.
But if McCartney had been unable to make it, Billy had plenty of other guests to make the night memorable -- Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Roger Daltrey, John Mayer, John Mellencamp and Steven Tyler.
McCartney returned a year later, performing two shows at Shea's replacement, CitiField, which was built next door, on July 17th, 18th and 21st, 2009. Those shows were documented on his 2009 album, Good Evening New York City.