Paul McCartney Answers YOUR Questions

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1:04Hello and welcome to this episode of The Rest is Entertainment, questions and answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde.

1:10Richard Osman:And I'm Richard Osman. A slightly different episode this week. Our guest, I often use the phrase needs no introduction, but it's Paul McCartney. He definitely needs no introduction. Yeah, Sir Paul McCartney of Wings, of course. So we recorded this last week. They said, Sir Paul would love to talk to you. Would you be able to come to Abbey Road Studios to do it? We're like, yeah, that's even better for us than Sir Paul coming to the Spotify Studios. I know you won't say this, but I'm going to say what you did that day, which was hilarious. You did a dash from receiving your OBE at Windsor Castle straight to Abbey Road to talk to Paul McCartney.

1:50Richard Osman:It's quite a day in some ways. It's an unbelievable day. Yeah, I spoke to the Princess Royal in the morning and then straight to Abbey Road to talk to even more royalty. I loved it that he said he'd only had all of his honours from the late Queen. Yes, he had an awful lot more honours than I did and was happy to talk about it. Now, in this interview, which we absolutely loved, thank you to Sir Paul's team, and it was to celebrate the release of the Boys of Dungeon Lane, which is his new, it's a really beautiful album where he's really really really looking back to his uh younger days it's really it's very very special it's like a fame prequel yes it is like a fame prequel and and you know he was he was in an interesting introspective mood because of that and we you've sent in so many questions thank you so much loads of really really good ones couldn't use all of them um so have a listen out see if we used yours talked about one thing is i really there's a great question about the nature of fame and how much that has changed but we we've talked about Fandoms and mad fandoms, which, you know, he knew a few things about, but was genuinely hilarious, I found, on fandom.

2:54Richard Osman:But listen, we'll talk to you again afterwards as well. But I will just say this. What a dude.

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3:46Richard Osman:Sir Paul, what an absolute pleasure. Now all of the questions in this interview come from our listeners so that's not me just sort of apologising but they're not from us. Shall we kick off? We're here to talk about the new album and our first question has something to do with that. Yes, very much someone has written in from Liverpool. Matthew Lumbee says, after you announced the Boys of Dungeon Lane as your album title I drove straight round to Dungeon Lane to see what it was like. The street signs had been nicked. Was this random Scali's or was this cooked up by you? And if it was you, are you going to put the signs back?

4:21It was Scali. Because I went up there, you know, to, I thought, I'll take pictures of it because we're going to do it for the album cover. And it was gone. Even before you'd announced? Yeah, even before I'd got there, yeah. So it's a mock-up. Oh, is it? Yeah, the album cover hat. And they haven't replaced yet. They will replace. Well, because, yeah, I think they may replace it, but it'll get nicked again. Oh, when you got nicked. So that was it. It was there when I was a kid. But I think the philosophies have changed. You know, because when you were a kid, no one would dare nick a street sign.

4:56It's just something that the older generation did.

4:59Richard Osman:You must have been responsible for almost more street signs being stolen than anyone in history now. Yeah, Abbey Road. Yeah. Penny Lane. Penny Lane. I mean, there's a lot of them. Dungeon Lane is going to be the new one. Well, let's talk about a little bit more about Dungeon Lane a question from Matt Creasy who says your most recent album is about memories of Liverpool When you were writing songs about the past, how do you make sure the music stays present? Well, because it is present that's you don't really have to think about it too much I'm because it's me writing it so I'm writing it on the guitar or Maybe a piano and I can't really do much more than what I do So, you know, it's always going to sound sort of present-ish, no matter what the lyrics are.

5:46It's just the way I write. You know, I write in all sorts of different styles.

5:51Richard Osman:Yeah. But they're all joined together by the fact it's me. Yes, they're all Paul McCartney. It's all Paul McCartney. You had a bit of a supplementary, Matt Creasy, which was, have you ever accidentally caught yourself writing a melody of a song and thought, oh, actually, I've already written that? Yeah. Or other people have written it. Yeah. We used to do that Ringo used to come up with songs and we say Ringo that's a Bob Dylan song You go oh John and I used to do that too sometimes we just have a great melody Here we go here, and then it'd be like isn't that out of West Side Story or something You know it's easy to do But when you do so you're going back in your mind thinking memories of Liverpool at that time Yeah Do you also go back in time and memories of how you wrote songs at that time?

6:38Richard Osman:Do you know that? Are you able to sort of connect with that teenager musically as well? No, I don't think so. I think, you know, you're lucky if you can write songs, you're lucky if they develop and your style develops. Yeah. So I can do things within that song you're talking about by my mum and dad, Salesman Saint. In it, we have the sound of an old 40s band. Yeah. So I can do things like that, which is, it's not my style going back. It's just that this is what they would have listened to. Yeah. There's a line in the song, sort of says, the only entertainment was a piano and radio, hot tea and cigarettes.

7:21Yeah. You know, that's what I remember. Yeah. My dad was the family pianist at singalongs and they both smoked ciggies and drank a lot of tea. So that's, you know, that's what I would just pick up on.

7:36Richard Osman:It comes through, I have to say, people who are going to listen to this album or listens, it's so brilliant. And it absolutely takes us back somewhere whilst we're still in 2026. It's a prequel. I think it's wonderful, yeah. It's a prequel. How do you tunnel back there? I've someone, Jensen Tagg has written and he said, Bob Dylan says that when he looks back at songs he wrote in his 20s, he doesn't quite know who that person is who wrote Blowing in the Wind. Do you feel similar? There's obviously a bloodline to where you are now, but. Yeah, yes, it is. Only difference is I sort of know what, who that person was, because there's a sort of line to what we did.

8:16We first came in the studio, Abbey Road Studio, as sort of just barely out of our teenage years. And we were writing songs then directly to the fans. So Love Me Do, please, please, please me, please. Black brackets. From me to you, She Loves You is all about me or you directly to the people who are listening. And then we start to get a bit different, you know. So I kind of know, I remember who that guy, who those guys were. It was people from Liverpool writing to the fans first phase, then maturing a little bit and getting a little bit more artistic or whatever, you know. So, you know, I think I kind of do remember who I was.

9:10You always strike me as someone who's been able to totally preserve their innocence. How on earth have you managed that? Yeah, I don't know. People do put it another way. They'll say, how have you stayed so normal with the Beatles and the whole thing, Wings, the whole thing. And I think the truth is, it was my family. I was very lucky. I came from a very loving family, very smart working class people. And I always say to people, don't underestimate the working class. Because, you know, I can see the thing, oh, thickhead, the plumber, what's he know? But from my family, I know that like, for instance, my cousin Bert, he compiled crosswords for the Guardian and for the Times.

10:05So, I mean, you know, to do that, that's a pretty smart working class guy.

10:09Richard Osman:Yeah, isn't it just? And, you know, he's just one of us. Yeah. So we had that kind of stuff going on. Very smart, all the reparty. By the way, I think the reason that Bob Dylan doesn't remember writing Blowing in the Wind is because Ringo Starr wrote it. Yeah. Yeah, do you remember? Yeah, of course. I think this is a great question from Khaled Saeed. He says, as someone who's been extraordinarily famous for possibly the longest time of any famous person, Can you describe how being famous has changed in your lifetime? What did it feel like to be famous in the 60s versus today? Yeah, I think the big difference is in yourself.

10:48When you're first famous, you love it because it's what you're trying to achieve. So you actually get a little hit or something goes well and people in the street know you. You love it.

11:03Richard Osman:Yeah. There's never any of this sort of, oh, people are bothering me. You didn't have that? None of that. The modern affliction. Yeah, no, we loved it, you know. And you learn to deal with it. I remember going to a gig once and I took the train out of London to the station near this gig and I walked in just on my own to the gig. And there was a little gang of girls found me. and they're all screaming around and I'm going, girls, girls, calm down. Calm down. Now listen, here's the deal. If you keep quiet, I'll do your autographs. We'll walk in and it would be great. So you learned how to deal with that and they got it and they were very good and realized they'd get some special time, you know.

11:54As time's gone by, the times have changed. So now, phones. Yeah. Phones. So if I meet someone, it's like, oh, oh, and they're reaching for their phone, you know. And I say, I'm sorry, I don't do pictures. And that is like radical these days. Because I told that, I'm name dropping now, I told that to Oprah. She goes, you don't do pictures? I said, no. She said, why? I don't want to. You know, and it's like it's as simple as that. And I have a long explanation about, oh God, it goes on. I say, no, I don't like to do that because it's important to me. It's a bit your question about your innocence or your normalness.

12:45I feel that's very important to me. The minute I get like above myself and start thinking I'm like something else, I won't like me. So it's very important for me to be sort of just me. And so I will say to people, I don't want to do the photos. And they'll say, why? I'll say, well, I'll tell you what. And I go into this long-winded explanation of down on the south coast of France, Saint-Tropez, there's a guy on the beachfront who's got a monkey. And you pay to have your photo taken with the monkey. So I say I'd really do not want to feel like that monkey and when I take a picture with you I do feel like him.

13:29Oh, that's great. I'm not me I'm suddenly something else that way they've got a proper moment of connection with you I thought that weirdly I went to the Louvre I told my daughter to Paris for the first time we went to Louvre. No one looked at any of the pictures They just stuck their hand their phone up and photographed it. Yeah, and you know You're a bit little bit like Mona Lisa So but just having just the photo like that rather than yeah, it's a name

13:51Richard Osman:I'm a man of how we live now. Yeah. I love the idea. There's someone who's seen support McCartney is so excited and then asking for this and you get towards the end of the explanation and they're going anyway, Paul I have Lovely to meet you. It was a nice story And then they go back to their friends and say you met Paul. Did you get a picture? No He just went on blub some bloody monkey I had some special time you told me an incredible anecdote about a monkey. It was something about the monkeys. I forget what it was. Do you feel the press and intrusion and things like that have changed since the 60s as well?

14:27I think they were always intrusive. You know, I think it doesn't bother me, the press. I used to call them lovable rogues because there is that element to them. Now, some of them are not so lovable. Yeah, but I don't mind you know, it's their job. And so as long as what they're writing about you isn't too bad. I just think it's occupational hazard Speaking of some watch an occupational hazard This is one of my favorite questions we have today from Philip Andrews who says even though you are very very famous Have you ever been mistaken for another celebrity? No, oh that's good Yeah, you're the absolute apex predator.

15:09I think it would have been good. No, no I think you have to play along in the moment if you are yeah

15:14Richard Osman:If we muse off of music for a second so I know you're a big TV fan I know you have all types of culture Laura Goldbolt says if you had to be a contestant on a reality game show Which one would you choose and why e.g. Traitors Bake Off Dragon's Den, etc? Pointless, thank you. Absolutely not just because you and that's a booking that's an official booking It's Christmas Yeah, pointless is one of my favorites So that would probably be the one or the favorite shows Gogglebox House of games. There you go without rich. He's very very yeah Yeah, I had another question from Rachel Ablett who's the producer of would I lie to you?

15:52Richard Osman:And she said would you ask support if he'll come on the would I like to Christmas special? We'd love to have him. Oh my god, but on that show the favorite on that show They do an interview with you where they sort of say it's anything interesting ever happened to you And you'd be like, they'd be there for weeks. Now Cherry says, you've always been a great character writer. Eleanor Rigby, Rocky Raccoon, Jenny Wren. Is there any behaviour that you see in people in the 21st century that still baffles you? The new types of characters? I think a lot of this influencer stuff. I just, because I'm not that generation, I just don't really get it.

16:27But I see it, you can't help it. It's on an Instagram where my wife will be looking and she'll be showing me something else, and then one of those will come on. I just think it's funny. I suppose it always happened, but people who don't seem to be particularly talented are like very famous, only very famous, billions of hits and views and all that. So you've got to be careful about talking about that because it makes you sound very old-fashioned, which I am.

16:58Richard Osman:Yeah, I think if you're Sir Paul McCartney, you're allowed to say that. Am I? Yes, I think you can get away with it. I'll continue. Yeah, in the same way you're allowed to name drop Oprah. Yeah. She was lucky to be named up there. She was lucky. She was lucky to appear in this. Yeah.

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