Sir Paul McCartney has admitted he’s baffled by modern influencer culture, saying he often sees people with “no particular talent” becoming massively famous online.
Influencer Culture
The Beatles icon, 83, has weighed in on the rise of influencer culture – and he’s not convinced he understands the hype.
Speaking on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, the music legend said the whole phenomenon feels foreign to him, especially as someone who came from a completely different era of fame.
He said, “I think a lot of this influencer stuff – I just don’t really get it, because I’m not that generation.”
McCartney mostly encounters it when his wife Nancy, 66, scrolls through Instagram and shows him clips.
What surprises him most is how quickly some people skyrocket to fame without any obvious skill behind it.
He said, “People who don’t seem to be particularly talented are incredibly famous. Billions of hits and views.”
McCartney joked that he knows comments like that can make him sound out of touch, but he’s not bothered by the label.
He laughed, “You’ve got to be careful about saying that, because it makes you sound very old‑fashioned. Which I am.”
Refusing Selfies
Elsewhere, the Let It Be hitmaker explained why he refuses to take selfies with fans.
He said, “As time’s gone by, things have changed. Now – phones. So if I meet someone, they’re reaching for their phone, and I say: ‘I’m sorry, I don’t do pictures.’ And that is radical these days. I told that to Oprah – I’m name‑dropping now – and she said: ‘You don’t do pictures?’ I said: ‘No.’ She said: ‘Why?’ I said: ‘I don’t want to.’ It’s as simple as that.”
McCartney insists he never wants to feel like a prop.
He continued, “I have a long explanation – I say I don’t like to do it because something important to me, something related to your question about innocence and staying normal, would be lost. The minute I start thinking I’m something above myself, I won’t like me. It’s very important for me to just be me.”
He then shared the analogy he often uses when fans push back. “I go into this long explanation about how, down on the south coast of France in Saint‑Tropez, there’s a man on the beachfront who has a monkey, and you pay to have your photo taken with the monkey. I really do not want to feel like that monkey. And when I take a picture with someone, I do feel like him. I’m not me anymore – I’m suddenly something else.”