Beatles frontman Paul McCartney can’t go anywhere in the world without being recognized.
Still, life is good.
In a recent interview with GQ, he appeared at the Abbey Road crosswalk that the band made famous on his way to the Abbey Road studio to do a private concert, which was produced by Spotify, to promote his new album Egypt Station.
The concert, if you’re wondering, wasn’t a typical 15-30 minute rundown of hits old and new. That’s not his style, the magazine says. Instead, the 76-year-old McCartney and his band played for nearly two hours for an intimate crowd that included Johnny Depp, J.J. Abrams, Olando Bloom, Liv Tyler, Kylie Minogue, and Amy Schumer among others.
Later on in the story, McCartney discusses topics that are pivotal to his life and career.
The first among them is fame.
“When we [he, John Lennon, and George Harrison] got together, we sort of started to dream that,” McCartney says about the fame and success that Elvis had garnered. “It was a bit of a far-off dream, and it was just a dream. It wasn’t anything that we ever really thought would turn out to be more than that,” he recalls.
Ironically enough, as everyone knows (or should anyway), The Beatles are widely considered the most influential music group of all time.
Shortly thereafter, McCartney’s focus shifts to concerts and ticket sales.
“‘Sold out’ best two words in the English language,” McCartney says after his publicist gives him the rundown for some upcoming shows.
When the reporter, who does a great job writing and telling the story, proposes the idea that there has to be something else that is better, McCartney replies, “When you are about to tour, there aren’t.”
>> Learn the difference between hard and soft ticket sales
Lastly, McCartney talks about working with Kanye West, who seems to dominate every conversation that he’s not even a part of.
The two met for the first time in 2006, according to the magazine.
It wasn’t until 2014, however, that Kanye asked McCartney’s manager if they would like to make music together. McCartney’s one stipulation, the story says, is that no word of their studio time was to get out if nothing came of it.
Obviously the meeting yielded something fruitful—three tracks to be exact.
The first is “Only One,” which is West’s tribute to his mother.
The second is the uncharacteristic mashup where Rihanna shines.
The final song might be the best one of them all. Legend has it that Kanye sampled an unused Beatles melody for it. What’s more impressive about this track is that it features 20 writers, including McCartney and Kendrick Lamar.
About working with West, McCartney tells GQ, “I thought we might actually sit down and writing a song in the way that I was used to writing a song—actually craft something there and then. It turned out we were creating an ‘ingredient pool,’ which is how he does it.” He added that the sound engineer was recording everything and the rapper was recording on his iPhone throughout the process as well.
West and McCartney are still in touch as two once-in-a-lifetime rockstars can be.
The rapper actually proposed the idea of producing Egypt Station. After some consideration, however, McCartney declined the offer because he had a specific vision he was trying to execute for it.
We’re willing to bet that they’re not done completely done working together just yet though.
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