Paul McCartney has been discussing his musical and creative life on The Penguin Podcast, as he promotes his latest book for children, Hey Grandude!

Paul recalls meeting Bob Dylan, whom he found to be ‘very nice’ when they met at the Coachella music festival but imagines that if he were to have to interview Dylan he would certainly be nervous.

He reflected on the artist’s elusive sense of security which he totally ‘gets.’ “John Lennon was not that secure,” McCartney said. “I remember John saying to me once – ‘what are people going to think of me when I’m dead? I wonder of they’ll like me.’

“And I said, now, just you stop, listen to me – ‘people love you, and they are going to love you more’ – and obviously that’s turned out to be the case. I had to reassure him and say: `you’re great.’

McCartney himself has been famous for almost 60 years, the podcast presenter Nihal Arthanayake points out but the ex-Beatle sets fame to rights. Referring to feelings of artistic insecurity which he has felt himself, McCartney declares that  “it can happen to anyone. ”

“You’d think I’d know that I’d done okay,” he wryly remarks. “It’s not that easy, life’s not that easy,” he says, despite having ‘amassed a little pile over here of successes.’

Paul also revealed that he doesn’t really listen to The Beatles songs any more.

“You’re often onto the next thing and I’m always there doing something because I enjoy working,” he said.

“But what is nice is when we remaster or when there’s a project, particularly The Beatles from sixty years ago, or it’s an anniversary – it’s fifty years, it’s sixty years.

“I have to listen to it to approve it and to say the remaster is a great job.

“So we play the remastered sound alongside the old sound and you know, sometimes the old sounds better.”

Paul also revealed that he does not insist on people calling him ‘Sir Paul.’ “I’d just rather make it informal as possible  . . .call me anything but early.”
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