What a delightful ‘The Rest is Entertainment’ episode where Richard Osman and Marina Hyde fail to hide their glee at snagging Sir Paul McCartney. This wasn’t just deferential respect being paid to a cultural icon. They used the ‘listeners have written in with their questions’ tactic. It worked well… Macca now responding to fans and not hardened journalists.
On how being famous has changed since the early 60s Beatlemania… Paul mimed pulling something out of his front pocket and said ‘phones.’ He refuses to pose for selfies with fans. And if asked why, he gives a story about a man in St Tropez charging people to pose with his monkey. Paul doesn’t want to feel like the monkey.
Paul also admitted there were songs he wasn’t especially proud of. Bip Bop – an early Wings number – being one he couldn’t believe he got away with. But then he said how producer Trevor Horn – no stranger to a great composition – told him he loved that song. I paused the podcast and listened to it. Sorry Trevor… I’m with McCartney on that one.
He’s also confident enough to laugh at his attention-seeking. Saying that when his kids accuse him of loving the adulation, he’s happy to concede ‘yeah.. you can ‘adule’ me any time you want.’ Perhaps Paul’s been famous for so long that he’s come out the other side and is now normal again.
Or maybe he always was.
Andrew Greenhalgh 