'Was I really in The Beatles? Bl**dy hell!'

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Sir Paul McCartney: I often think 'Was I really in The Beatles? Bl**dy hell!' 
Sir Pal McCartney talks to Metro about marriage, jazz music, starting out and why he still can't believe he was a member of The Beatles... 
By Arwa Haider - 6th February, 2012

‘Welcome to my office, my art gallery and my dosshouse…’ Sir Paul McCartney gives a  jovial personal greeting at his HQ in central London. His  appearance and the quirky art-filled room (paintings and photography; a modernist sculpture wearing a balaclava) are a relief after the forebodingly clinical reception a few floors below. 

It is also surreal: a smart-casual 69-year-old with chestnut-brown hair, instantly recognisable for some of the most celebrated songwriting in pop history, as well as some of the most international press attention, McCartney sweeps an arm towards the window, overlooking the Soho sprawl: ‘I like the view of the garden,’ he adds in his steady Scouse drawl.

McCartney’s ‘dosshouse’ is clearly a hive of  activity; the former Beatle and Wings frontman has been a prolific recording artist since the early 1960s and he hasn’t slowed down in recent years, although his latest solo album, Kisses On The  Bottom, is a whole-heartedly old-timey affair. 

The cheeky title comes from a line in the first track, I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write  Myself A Letter: a 1930s jazz standard originally performed by Fats Waller. The album mostly  centres on crooner covers from that period (including It’s Only A Paper Moon and Irving Berlin’s  Always), along with a couple of original songs penned by McCartney and featuring guest musicians Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder; he’s smoothly backed throughout by Diana Krall’s band. McCartney created a similar, seamless mix of covers and originals on his 1999 rock’n’roll tribute album, Run Devil Run.

McCartney album mixes in a studio

‘I’m a sponge,’ quips McCartney. ‘I’m very  influenced by rock’n’roll and my dad’s era of  music. I never heard his 1920s jazz band but  I got a love of that style through what he played at home. We used to have big New Year’s parties; the family would get together, roll back the carpet, get drunker as the evening went on and sing songs like Always and Bye Bye Blackbird, which they knew by heart. 

‘With The Beatles, I found that we mixed two genres: the structure of these old songs, with the new rock’n’roll we were hearing. People always associate John Lennon with hard rock’n’roll but one of the first things I liked about him was that  we could talk about  favourite songs from that older era.’ 

There’s a decidedly unfazed air to McCartney, whether he’s releasing personal serenades or ruminating on whether he and Lennon might have ever reunited creatively (‘We were getting our relationship back together when John was killed but I don’t think The Beatles would have got back together; we’d made a considered decision that we’d come from A to Z’). 

One of his latest  album’s original numbers, My Valentine, was penned for Nancy Shevell, whom he married last year. ‘I sometimes write love songs in the way people write fairy tales; I’m quite romantic,’ he says. ‘My Valentine makes me think of the day  I wrote it for Nancy, whereas songs like Maybe I’m Amazed or My Love still remind me of Linda [McCartney’s first wife, who died in 1998].’ 

He’s less keen to talk about the songs from his acclaimed 2001  album Driving Rain, including Heather (about his then-wife Heather Mills – they acrimoniously divorced in 2008); there’s a cool air of control here, too. 

Still, it’s hard to think of another star whose work in the past ten years alone has encompassed bluegrass, pop-rock, classical symphonies and electronic music (The Fireman,  McCartney’s experimental project with producer Youth, has yielded several excellent records, including 2008’s Electric Arguments). 

‘I’ve never been a style snob,’ says McCartney. ‘I actually like to go outside the box. If I’m allowed into these different worlds and it’s a pleasure, then I’ll do it.’ 

A conversation with McCartney feels like a whirl of musical landmarks, scattered with unexpected details. In 2010, he played live  at the White House to collect the Gershwin Prize for songwriting and  remarked that it was a special experience ‘for an English kid growing up in Liverpool’. 

As someone who’s been in the spotlight since Beatlemania, how much could McCartney feel like a regular Liverpool lad? 

‘I’m lucky that I’ve always retained a sense of wonder,’ he says. ‘I was looking at the George Harrison book accompanying Martin Scorsese’s Living In The Material World recently and opened it at a picture George had taken of me and the other guys on an aeroplane. It took me right back; I was like: “Was I really there, in The Beatles? Bloody hell!” It’s obviously a stupid thought but I’m glad I haven’t got used to it yet. And then, getting invited to the US president’s gaff...’ He leads us out of the room, still reminiscing: ‘It was a tri-i-ip…’ And, with that, the lift doors to  McCartney’s HQ slide shut.

Sir Paul McCartney talks to Metro about life, love and all that jazz