Paul McCartney took part in a Q&A at a special screening event for his new documentary, Man On The Run, in London on Wednesday, February 18. As previously reported, the film looks at McCartney’s life and music career after the 1970 breakup of The Beatles, particularly focusing on his post-Fab Four group Wings.
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Video footage of the interview, which also featured Man On The Run director Morgan Neville, has been posted on YouTube. During the Q&A, McCartney reflected on the challenge he undertook to launch a new group after being in the most famous and successful band in the world.
“We tried to follow The Beatles,” he commented. “It was like, you know, it’s mad.”
Asked if he recognized that what he did with Wings was brave, he replied, “Yeah. I actually just see the madness, you know. … I think it was so impossible to do something like that, that the only way you could do it was just in a kind of looney way that we did it.”
McCartney then touched on the first tour Wings did, which took place in February 1972. The 11-show trek featured the band traveling around the U.K. in a van, performing at various universities. The tickets to these concerts were incredibly cheap.
As Sir Paul recalled, “[We just thought,] ‘Yeah, we’ll just go back to square one, and we’ll just go show up at a university, don’t book hotels, and just … take the dogs in a van. And, you know, for some reason, we thought that was like a great idea.”
McCartney Also Felt He Began To Grow Up After The Beatles’ Breakup
In 1970, McCartney was asked what his plans were following The Beatles’ split, and he answered, “My only plan is to grow up!” During the Q&A, the interviewer pointed out that the documentary showed that Paul had started to focus on family life after his famous band broke up. This included having his wife be a part of his new group.
As McCartney explained, “Well, I think … with The Beatles, we were just lads. Everyone, all our management used to call us ‘the boys.’ … So we were always like young people. And then, when I got married and then there was a baby on the way, I had to grow up. I thought, ‘We can’t just go [on] just being … the boys anymore.’ So it was time to just think about stuff. And so, even though the film is kind of madcap, and what you’re seeing is all our insane decisions, in the background there was some sensible decisions too, you know. We also had, like, a sensible life.”
McCartney also shared that his favorite parts of the documentary included the footage of his family.
“I think all the stuff with the kids and Linda, you know, is lovely to see,” he said. “I mean, obviously, the Linda stuff was very emotional … ’cause she looks so beautiful. She’s so cool. So that comes over.”
As previously reported, Man On The Run will get its TV premiere on Friday, February 27, on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. A companion soundtrack album will be released the same day.
(Photo by Mark Ellidge/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
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