Paul McCartney is getting candid about his life after The Beatles. In the trailer for Prime Video’s documentary Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, McCartney admits to struggling when The Beatles went their separate ways.
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“The Beatles had been my whole life, really,” McCartney says in the trailer. “When we split up, I thought, ‘I’ll never write another note of music ever.’”
It wasn’t just McCartney’s professional life that was uncertain after The Beatles’ split, but his personal one too.
“I had a fear of being a grown up,” he admits. “I felt very depressed.”
Even so, McCartney considered himself “very lucky because I had Linda.”
Linda, of course, is McCartney’s wife, whom he wed in 1969 and was with until her death in 1998. After The Beatles, the couple decided to collaborate professionally too, co-founding the group Wings.
“I said, ‘If I form a new band, do you want to be in it?’ And she kind of went, ‘Yeah!’” McCartney recalls. “We started Wings from square one. It was about trying to do something different.”
Paul McCartney Discusses Wings
According to McCartney, Wings was initially “a dud.” That only further inspired him “to make the best record you’ve ever heard,” though.
“People thought we were totally crazy, but that was our way,” McCartney says. “And the word spread that this was a good show.”
At the time, McCartney was “growing apart” from his Beatles bandmate John Lennon, and felt that he was on “another journey” with Wings.
“When we started Wings, it was about freedom,” McCartney says. “We felt we finally arrived. Second time around.”
In a statement to People, the outlet that premiered the trailer, director Morgan Neville spoke about the project.
“I’ve always loved the Beatles, but Wings was the band putting out records when I was young,” he said. “I remember buying them in stores and obsessing over them. Having a chance to revisit this time with Paul took me back like it took him back. In many cases, Paul hadn’t thought about those times in many years. So really it was a sense of rediscovering things together.”
“Beyond the music, which is such a rich well to explore, I think this story is really about someone trying to figure out who they are,” Neville added. “All while being observed, judged and criticized from all angles. More than anything, I think Paul figured out his priorities in life and stuck to them tenaciously. I think there are a lot of lessons in it for anybody.”
Paul McCartney: Man on the Run will premiere Feb. 27 on Prime Video.
Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images
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