Paul McCartney recently launched his Got Back tour of the U.S., and in the latest installment of his “You Gave Me the Answer” Q&A feature, he fields questions about the challenge of choosing songs for his live sets.
So far, McCartney’s shows have included one song from his latest studio album, 2020’s McCartney III — “Women and Wives” — but one fan asks Sir Paul if he’ll consider playing another track from that record, “Find My Way.”
“[T]here’s always the eternal dilemma of what do you take out, knowing the audiences really want to hear the hits so you’ve got to balance it very carefully,” McCartney responds. “You’re taking out something they know very well and putting in something they don’t necessarily know, and I’m always dreading that’s the signal for them to go get a beer.”
The 79-year-old rock legend then admits, “I’d like to do a whole show of new songs but that’s for…the deep fans. Most of the people who come and see me, who have paid good money, have brought their mums and dads, who have traveled a distance…I’m not so sure they wanna hear the deep cuts.”
McCartney maintains that general audiences wants to hear “Beatles stuff mainly, Wings stuff, and maybe some of the new stuff.”
As for whether it was tricky preparing “Women and Wives,” which he recorded completely solo, to play live with his full band, Paul notes that it was “pretty simple because it’s a very simple song.”
He explains that “[i]n rehearsal we just listen to the record, and we’re all such reasonable musicians that we kinda go ‘Okay, I know what I’ll do.'”
McCartney’s next concert takes place Friday, May 6, in Oakland, California. Check out his full schedule at PaulMcCartney.com.
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