McCartney still finds touring exciting

Paul McCartney told Billboard that after nearly 50 years in the business, he knows how to put fans at ease when they are surprised to see him out in public doing normal, every day things -- like going out for a newspaper. McCartney, who will release his new album, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, on September 13th, and begin a U.S. tour on September 16th in Miami, says, "I am very aware of (people noticing me). I do a sort of Liverpool thing, which is (jokingly saying), 'Look here, I don't want any trouble off you,' or whatever. I'll be in their face, and they'll go, 'Oh, he's just ordinary,' and we soon get at ease."

McCartney added, "It comes in handy in situations like that. People always expect you to be riding around in stretch limousines all the time, but I will sometimes take public transportation if it's convenient, and it does surprise people, you see the heads turn."

He went on to recall a recent fan encounter: "I was in New York and I needed to get uptown, so I took one of the uptown buses. This lady said, 'Hey, are you Paul McCartney?,' and started getting quite loud. I said, 'If you're going to talk to me, come over here, sit by me.'" He added that, "So she did, and I heard her entire history, how she was going to visit her sister and all this stuff."

McCartney, who recently took a break in tour rehearsals by spending a few weeks at his house in East Hampton, Long Island, told us that he still gets excited before hitting the road:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "I just like doing it, and whenever I go out on tour it's exciting to stick a few things in that I haven't done before, just 'cause then it's sort of like...There's sort of a nervous edge to it, which is quite cool."

His upcoming tour will be mixing songs from the new Chaos And Creation In The Backyard CD with his '70s Wings hits, such as "Band On The Run" and "Live And Let Die," along with Beatles favorites, such as "We Can Work It Out," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Let It Be," "Lady Madonna" and "Hey Jude."

While on the road last summer in Europe, McCartney premiered several Beatles tunes that he's never performed live including -- "You Won't See Me," "I'll Follow The Sun," "Helter Skelter," and "I've Got A Feeling," which was the last song he ever wrote with John Lennon, the group's Let It Be album.
Submit the above story to:

Del.icio.us   Digg   reddit   StumbleUpon   Facebook