“You Do See the Parallel”: Paul McCartney Says This Pop Star Has a Similar Level of Fame as the Beatles

Paul McCartney isn’t so different from Taylor Swift. In an interview with BBC Sounds, the music icon admitted that the level of fame Swift has now is comparable to that of The Beatles in their heyday.

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“You do see the parallel, the fame and the amount of fame,” McCartney said. “The worldwide fame that Taylor Swift has and that we had.”

As for words of wisdom he has for the star, McCartney said, “I don’t think she needs any advice to tell you the truth.” However, McCartney noted, “If she asked for it, I definitely would.”

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Swift isn’t the only present-day pop star that McCartney discussed in his interview. He revealed that he’s met singers including Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter at parties thrown by his wife and daughter.

“I’m like the older brother to that generation, or more like the grandad, actually,” he quipped. “They’re really cool people. They’re very good. I like their voices. If they need any advice, yeah, I would be happy to give it, but I don’t think they do.”

Ringo Starr Speaks Out About Taylor Swift

McCartney isn’t the only Beatle to compare Swift’s level of fame to the band’s. In a 2024 interview with American Songwriter, Ringo Starr made similar comments.

“Taylor Swift is great anyway. She’s pulling them in,” Starr said. “… Madonna was just out again. She was pulling them in. I think Taylor is the now one.”

Even those who weren’t in the Beatles recognize the fandom around Swift as similar to Beatlemania.

“Taylor is also a very talented girl and she’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs and she’s huge,” Billy Joel told USA Today in 2021. “You have to give her high marks. She knows music and she knows how to write. She’s like that generation’s Beatles.”

Swift was stunned by Joel’s comments, telling Extra, “That honestly like broke my brain, because that doesn’t seem like a real thing that would happen in life.”

“I might have hallucinated it. Maybe we had the same hallucination because I don’t really know how to process words like that from someone like him,” she added. “I’m a huge fan of his.”

Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Images