Paul McCartney has revealed he’d “still” spend his spare time songwriting if he was ever to retire from music making professionally.
McCartney made the comment ahead of his long-awaited return to Australia. Ahead of his show at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on October 17th, the former Beatle welcomed fans into the building for a relaxed Q&A and reflected on his history with the country, plus what motivates him to continue writing as an 81-year-old.
The Beatles first visited Adelaide and McCartney was asked about the historical occasion when the band stood on the balcony of the Town Hall in front of thousands of fans. When asked about that moment, McCartney recalled, according to The Guardian: “I mean it was overwhelming. That many people, it was insane. We were just standing there.”
During the discussion, McCartney also hailed John Lennon as a genius before noting: “I helped.” The legendary musician also revealed the one item he’d save from a house fire, stating: “I’d probably grab my guitar, a piano would be too heavy.”
Most poignantly, McCartney was asked about his love of songwriting. In response, he disclosed: “It’s my hobby. If I’ve got a day off I might write a song. Because I love it, that’s all there is to it. If I finished playing professionally tomorrow, I’d still do it – it beats working.”
Meanwhile, during a recent episode of his podcast A Life In Lyrics, McCartney labelled Yoko Ono as an “interference in the workplace”.
He explained: “John and Yoko had got together and that was bound to have an effect on the dynamics of the group. Things like Yoko being literally in the middle of the recording session [were] something you had to deal with. The idea was that if John wanted this to happen, then it should happen. There’s no reason why not.”
McCartney continued: “Anything that disturbs us, is disturbing. We would allow this and not make a fuss. And yet at the same time, I don’t think any of us particularly liked it.
“It was an interference in the workplace. We had a way we worked. The four of us worked with George Martin. And that was basically it. And we’d always done it like that. So not being very confrontational, I think we just bottled it up and just got on with it,” McCartney added.
