Paul McCartney refused to play Beatles songs with wings even though it made his life more difficult

After the Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney began touring for the first time in years with his band Wings. The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, so many people were hoping to hear McCartney perform them live with Wings. He explained why he decided not to do this, even though it made the tour more difficult for him.

Paul McCartney didn’t want to play Beatles songs on tour with Wings

McCartney went years without touring, so he admitted he was “very nervous” before his concert dates with Wings.

“The main thing I didn’t want to deal with was the torment of five rows of reporters with little notepads, all looking and saying, ‘Oh, well, he’s not as good as he seems.’ was “. So we decided to do this college tour, which made me less nervous because it was less serious,” he told Rolling Stone. “We did this tour and at the end, I felt quite ready for something else, and we went to Europe I was quite scared on the European tour It was a little more serious, here he is, ladies and gentlemen, who sold out all the tickets.

He also felt concerned about how people would react to his decision not to play any Beatles songs.

“We decided not to do any Beatles songs, which was a pain, of course, because it meant we had to do an hour of other songs, and we didn’t have them at the time.” , he declared. “I didn’t have something like ‘My Love’ that was somehow mine. I felt like everyone wanted Beatles stuff, so I was pretty nervous about that.

Paul McCartney played an old song on tour with Wings

The only song McCartney performed in the past was “Long Tall Sally.” It was the first song he sang on stage.

“The first time I sang on stage, I did ‘Long Tall Sally.’ I must have been quite young, probably 14; I feel like maybe I was 11, I don’t know,” he said. “We went to live with our parents at a holiday camp called Butlins, a branch in Wales. They used to have talent shows, and one of my cousins-in-law was one of the redcoats who had something to do with entertainment. He called us on stage, I had my guitar with me. Looking back, it must have been some editing work, I don’t know what I was doing there with my guitar.

He sang a brief set with his brother, which they closed with “Long Tall Sally.”

“I went up with my brother Mike, who had just recovered from a broken arm and looked pale. His arm was in a sling,” McCartney said. “We used to do an Everly Brothers number, something like ‘Bye Bye Love.’ I think it might have been “Bye Bye Love,” actually. We did that, then I finished with “Long Tall Sally.”

He didn’t want to go so long without filming.

McCartney was six years out when he embarked on his 1972 tour with Wings. He said he never intended to go this long without performing live.

“Oh, no, no, no. With the Beatles, we did a big American tour, and. I think the feeling, mainly from George and John, was, “Oh, this is getting a bit uhhh…” But I thought, “No, you can’t give up on live, we’d be crazy to do it . » he said. “But then we did a concert tour that I really hated and I stormed out and said, ‘Damn, I really agree with you now.'”