Sir Paul McCartney is pushing back on the idea of retirement. He admits he’s never been able to predict when, or if, he’ll finally put down the mic.
Asked About Retirement
The 83-year-old music legend, who just released his 20th solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, recalled being asked about retirement decades ago, explaining that even at 50, people assumed he’d reached the end of the road.
Asked if he sees himself retiring, he replied, “I don’t know. I never know, y’know?”
“We thought 30 was really old [when] we were 20… but it came, and it went, and people were still playing, and audiences like the music.”
The Let It Be hitmaker argued that classic artists remain essential because fans can’t experience their eras any other way.
He said, “If the music is from that period, they don’t get to hear it live any other way… you’ve got to hear Neil Young live to get the whole feel of Neil – the Neil feel. Same with a lot of bands – the Stones, The Eagles. There’s nothing like it.”
Joy Hasn’t Changed
For him, the real joy hasn’t changed since the beginning
He said, “Creative satisfaction is just writing a song – it’s still the same old satisfaction that it was.”
“There’s something magical about it, and I often think, ‘I never set out to be a singer-songwriter person.’ When I was at school, I thought the only thing left for me would be a teacher, because I didn’t have massive qualifications and unfortunately, that mean[t] you have to be a teacher.”
He continued, “But I got in the band, and it just led me to this. So, the satisfaction is just being able to write a song and, if you pull it off, that’s the same satisfaction that it always was. Some of them you pull off better than others, but it’s still a great thing.”
Building a Song
McCartney described the thrill of building a song from nothing as the thing that keeps him going.
The Beatle added, “It’s still a great achievement to sit down with, let’s say, my guitar and there’s nothing there… and suddenly, maybe after three or four hours, I’ve got a song… That still is a magic feeling for me. I think that’s the creative buzz still, and hopefully always will be.”