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Paul McCartney press conference
February 2, 1990
Auburn Hills, Michigan
Good Day Sunshine
On February 2, 1990, Paul McCartney met with reporters in a banquet room at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit. The Palace was the site of concerts on February 1 and 2, marking the opening of the second leg of Paul's World Tour. Paul discussed the tour, rapidly changing world affairs, the environment, bootlegs and, of course, the Beatles during this 25 minute conference. A complete transcript of Paul's conversation follows.
Paul: Hello. good afternoon, Detroit.
Q: How does it feel to play those old songs Paul?
A: Great.
Q: Sounds great.
A: Thank you. Yeah. Feels really good, because some of them we, uh, with the Beatles. We've given up touring like "Sgt. Pepper" and "Hey Jude," So I've never played them live before until this tour. They feel real fresh to do you know?
Q: How does it feel being in the Motor City, in Motown, where the Motown sound is?
A: Groovy, man. It's great. I love it here, you know?
Q: Any thoughts about the course, the band, The Beatles, from the old days? And, of course, the Paul is dead rumor. I mean, did you think about maybe not coming here for any reason?
A: Hey, no reason whatsoever about things like that.
Q: Paul, you made a comment...
A: It's, you know, those are just boring things from the past.
Q: You made a comment last night about how you took a lot of your musical routes from the city. Were you just referring to Motown, or were there other things?
A: I mainly met Motown. Yeah, we were major, major fans of black American music, which a lot of which came from this city so...
Q: You met a lot of Motown people during visits here and in London, too. Right?
A: Yep.
Q: Any particular favorites?
A: Oh, I love them all you know, there's just such a period. They kind of happened alongside us happening. It was like the English people, and the black Motown boom was great. So we were good mates, you know, like Diana Ross and the Supremes. We were kind of contemporaries, happening together. It's great.
Q: Did you think of having any Motown artists do a guest shot with you last night?
A: Well, the thing about this show is it's kind of difficult to work in guests. We've sort of got the show set now. Really, the only person who's guested so far is Stevie in LA, who was Motown, as you know, he guessed in there, but that was easy, because we do "Ebony and Ivory" in the set. It's just not too easy to open up the set, you know, when you get to this kind of stage with the production.
Q: What made you decide to tour after 13 years?
A: Maybe the fact that I got a good band. You know, I've been recording and kind of doing solo stuff and just doing little guest spots on things like Live Aid and shows like that. But during the recording of this Flowers in the Dirt album, the band felt really good. You know, we've got a sense of humor in common, and they're good musicians too. So it was either a question of saying "goodbye, see you next album", or like, "should we stay together?" And if we stay together, it's like, "what should we do? Let's go on tour." You know?
Q: The great McCartney LP. a lot of critics, though, are quick to judge anything that you or any of the other Beatles do. How did you go into this LP mentally? Do you ever get to the point where, like, writers, "Ha, to heck with them, I'm going to shove one down your throat?" How did you get ready for this LP?
A: Yeah, I get to that point. Well, I was not that pleased with the album before it, which is Press to Play. I just wasn't that keen on it. So I did want to make this one better and shove it down a few people's throats. I'm quite happy with the album itself. You know, it has some of my songs on it.
Q: Has coming out on the road reinspired you to maybe go back in the studio a little earlier than you have in the past? Have you come up with something different?
A: Not really, but it's good for you, getting on the road. It's a stimulating thing. You know, actually seeing your fans, instead of just getting letters from them, actually seeing their faces. You know, it really lifts you.
Q: In your program last night, I noticed that you said the best thing you like about touring is the audience. And we always hear so many great things from stars like yourself about Detroit. Was the audience last night as good as you expected?
A: It was a serious audience last night, really, because we've always been playing.
Q: What do you mean by that?
A: Seriously good, seriously fab, seriously duty. We just come from England and Wembley, which was a great series of concerts. We did 11 on the trek, I think. But the English are a little bit more reserved. You know, they get going, but it takes them, like, half an hour. This audience, it didn't take them but a second and then screams.
Q: How does the Palace in Auburn Hills stack up to the other venues you've played?
A: How does what?
Q: This-- the Palace.
A: This is brilliant. I really like this place. All of us are very impressed with this building.
Q: Paul, what I was saying last night, a lot of people said it was an emotional experience, people that were our age group, and even the younger people seeing it bringing back the 60s. Why did it take 20 years for you to come back out and finally play the classic Beatles songs?
A: When the Beatles broke up, it was kind of a little bit difficult. It was a bit like a divorce, and you didn't really want to do anything associated with the ex-wife kind of thing, you know, you didn't want to do her material. So all of us took that view independently, and John stopped doing Beatles stuff, George Ringo, and we all did because it was just painful. For a while, it was just painful memories, but enough times gone by now. On the last tour I did in '76 with Wings, we avoided a lot of Beatles stuff because of that. So now it feels really kind of natural to now go back to those songs. It's a question of either getting back to those songs or ignoring them for the rest of my life. So it just felt good. The timing just felt good. And as I say, some of them I haven't actually done before, and I didn't realize that till we were rehearsing with the band, and I said, "This feels great. "Sgt Pepper", I mean, why is this so great? And someone reminded me, they said, "You've never done it. "You know, it's like a new song to me, it's just the right time to come back with that stuff.
Q: Will there be a time when you get together with George and Ringo? Not really a reunion without John, but kind of a jam?
A: Maybe we will, I don't know. There's that's always on the cards, but a reunion as such is out of the question, because John's not with us. You know, they would have to ---the only reunion you could have had would have been with John. But like you say, we might easily get together. There's a couple of projects that are possible now that we've solved our business differences. So, you know, I don't know. I haven't actually seen them. I've been living this whole thing through the press. People say to me, "George said he won't do it." I haven't even spoken to him yet.
Q: Why did it take so long to resolve your business differences?
A: Have you ever been in a lawsuit? I was in one for the last 20 years. You don't ---it just took forever. What happens is, you get your advisors, and they get theirs, and then lawyers, I think, are trained to keep things like that going. The first rule in law school, you know, keep it going.
Q: Do you regret that you didn't get together when the four of you did have an opportunity?
A: When was that?
Q: Do you regret that the four Beatles never got together again after the breakup, before John's death?
A: Well, I regret it, you know. But, I mean, this is life, you know. It just didn't happen. It just didn't happen for a number of reasons. It would have been great, but John not dying would have been even better.
Q, What's going on in Eastern Europe?
A: I think it's very exciting. To me it seems like the '60s kicking in. That's my point of view on it. It's all the stuff that was said in the '60s: peace, love, democracy, freedom, a better world, and all that stuff. It's finally kicked in. You know, the way I look at it, people like Gorbachev grew up with the '60s like we all did, and I don't think you can be unaffected by it. I think it's all kicking in now. I think you look at those people who are coming across the border, and lots of them are wearing denim, you know, it's us coming across that border. I think it's very exciting. I think China's next.
Q: Are you going to play any dates in Eastern Europe now that the Iron Curtain....
A: Yeah, I'd like to, but we've got so many dates on this tour, you know, and they don't include Eastern Europe, which I'd like to go to Russia, but the promoters say it's too cold, so I went to Italy.
Q: What are your plans after the tour?
A: I'll be writing after the tour. I've got a lot of writing I want to do. I'm doing a very interesting thing. It's like a classical thing for an orchestra and stuff, which is due to be performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the Liverpool Cathedral in 1991, and that's like a serious work, so I've got a lot of writing to do.
Q: What about your memoirs? Why don't you write your memoirs?
A: I don't know, really. I've always thought that you had to be like about 70 before you wrote those.
Q: How does it feel when you look out into the crowd, and you might see a parent that's 40 or 50, and they have their child with them, and both are relating to your music?
A: It's really beautiful. I love it, you know, because I've got four kids. And the great thing about me and my kids is there isn't this generation gap that I thought would be there at this time, you know?
Q: Do they ever listen to any music that bothers you?
A: Nope, I know it's strange. I expected exactly that to happen, you know, where they would be into totally sort of dissident punk music, you know, I'd sort of say, well, the '60s was better. My son loves this big new turn on album. I turned him on to Pet Sounds, which is a totally classic album, in my view. And he loves James Brown, Otis Redding, the Commodores; he's got some good taste.
Q: What new things are you listening to right now?
A: What am I listening to? That kind of stuff? I listen to everything. I listen to all sorts of things.
Q: Are you surprised how many young people are responding on the tour and the concerts here?
A: Well, kind of, but in a way, a couple of years ago, they started to see the Grateful Dead and these kids that I knew, like my nephews, who are growing up, who I've seen since they were like two, they're sort of all out. They're like 18 now, you know, and they're like, all Deadheads man. Well that's incredible, I think, you know, maybe it's because some modern music is a little bit synthetic and shallow that they're looking back to the '60s. And the great thing about a lot of that '60s stuff is that it does stand up still.
Q: Are your children musically inclined?
A: They are, but I've always said--- Linda and I have always said that we'll never push them, because it's a tough game this, you know, and unless they're really keen, but they're all very good, they're all very interested in music, and they all carry a tune and stuff.
Q: James and Stella are traveling with you right now. Would you ever invite either of them on stage?
A: Not really. You know, it's too sort of showbiz, that kind of thing. I know a lot of people do that, but if they really desperately want to do it, then I'd help them. But it's got to come from them. You know, I'm not going to push them on the stage because, you know, they say it's a tough game.
Q: How do you compare the thrill of performing in the '60s to the thrill of performing today?
A: It's, it's strangely similar. Actually, that crowd last night was strangely '60s. It's very good, you know
Q: But you can hear yourself now with the new technology.
A: Yeah. I mean, you know, when we started out, I mean, you compare it to all this equipment here, you've got, like, Cape Canaveral up. But, I mean, when we started out, it was like two guitars and a bass and one amp.
Q: Do you have any thoughts about playing at the Palace where the world champion Detroit Pistons are from?
A: What are we going to do?
Q: As far as playing in the Palace, you're on your world tour, and the Pistons are the world champion NBA team. Do you have any thoughts about that?
A: Well, I understand two of them are coming tonight, so it'll be nice to meet them. You know, I'm a great basketball fan.
Q: When you have a chance to get away from this for a few minutes, kind of ponder what's going on in the world, and get a chance to think about it as Paul McCartney, the father. Is there anything that strikes you as something that you would like to really affect if you could give a man of your stature and your access?
A: Well, the thing we're doing on this tour is mentioning the environmental issues a lot. I mean, I'm no expert, but I've got four kids, as I said, and you see things like this Exxon spill, and you know how well they cleaned up ---joke, joke, you know? And I don't think anyone wants that to happen. I don't think anyone wants the ozone hole to get any bigger. But, you know, I'm like everyone else. It's kind of well, if the government will fix it, someone will fix it for us. But I think last year, it became apparent that no one's going to fix it, and we've got to, like, you know, address the problem. So that's what I'm doing. Really the opportunity here, I'm on these cameras with you press people, you know, and I mentioning it just to give the issues publicity, because I really think we've got to get serious on all that stuff.
Q: What is Friends of the Earth trying to do? What are you trying to do with Friends of the Earth?
A: Basically, it's trying to clean up the planet, instead of putting your toxic waste in your water, instead of blowing a hole in the sky, instead of having acid rain. And if somebody told me when I was a kid that when I grew up, the land would have poisons in it, the rain would have acid in it, the sky would have a hole in it, I wouldn't have believed them. But here we are. You know, we're at that point. So my hope is going into the next century that we really address that problem and really get the planet straight. I mean, my point of view is that we are definitely the species that won, like man has definitely beat all the other animals hands down, no question. So what I'd like to see is us now be cool dudes with that thing, instead of which we're still blasting the hell out of it. You know, I think it's time we should just recognize we've won and we ought to be decent champions.
Q: Is that organization also getting into it? There's a big controversy over garbage. There are too many landfills, and it's causing a lot of toxins
A: I think they're basically just trying to address some of the more serious problems we've got ourselves into. You know, we're the only species of animals on earth that fouls its own nest. Everyone else you know, all the other birds and stuff, they all go over there to take a dump. But we don't. We do it right here, right where we live. We put all our toxic waste into our lakes and stuff. I mean, Britain's got this great business where we accept waste from like Japan and stuff, and all we do is put it in cans and put it under the sea. They say it'll be all right for a few 100 years. Well, I say, "What about 101 years when it blows up? What's going to happen?" So, I mean, I think we've got to be clever. I think we were clever enough to address all of that, but you know, it's going to take some doing.
Q: What was your inspiration for the presentation before the concert, going about putting the film footage together?
A: I talked to Richard Lester, who was the guy who made A Hard Day's Night and Help!. And we were thinking of having a support act before the tour, before our act. But the promoters told me that was going to get difficult. So I just said, "Well, how about we do a film?" And I rang Dick Lester, and I said to him, " Could you do a film that kind of says, First there was the Beatles, then there was Wings, and then there was now?" And he said, "Let me think about it." And he came back with that film, which I like, you know, it's kind of uncompromising. It's very grown-up. Film gives people something to think about.
Q: Are you going to change the show when it comes to stadiums?
A: Yeah, we will magnify it a bit. This style of show is fine in an arena like this, but when you get into 40,000-seat arenas. It starts to look a little small, so we'll just make it bigger, but basically keep the same show.
Q: There's been a flood of unreleased Beatles recordings, very high quality, the Ultra-Rare Trax you probably heard about. What are your feelings on that? About the release of those? And would you like to see EMI release them officially?
A: That's kind of a difficult question. You know, it's like, as far as the Beatles were concerned, we released all our good material, except for maybe one or two little things that we just, at the time, didn't like. And there are one or two tracks that I think are worth looking at, "Leave my Kitten Alone", John sings, which I think that's that's very good. A couple of other things we do, but in the main, we released all our best materials. So, you know, it's like memorabilia. People just like it. You know, there's, like a track that was the take we didn't use, or something. So as far as if people are interested, it's fair enough. I mean, I don't get uptight about bootlegs. What are you going to do?
Q: Is this band going to go into the studio with you?
A: I'd like to. Yeah, we'd like to do that. We have a live album from this tour before we do, so that will be the next release, I think.
Q: I just wondered if you planned a tour again after this.
A: Yeah, it's funky, you know. Because I think a lot of people sort of come to the show and think, "Well, it's the last time you'll see him." I don't know why they think that, but yes, don't worry, we're getting up there. But as far as I'm concerned, I feel 27, not 47.
Q: Will you rock and roll after you're 50? Do you think?
A: I think there's probably life after 50. Yeah
Q: Paul, of all the songs you've written, and there are hundreds of them, what would be your favorite if you have one?
A: That's a very difficult question. I mean, musically, I might say "Here, There and Everywhere." But as far as success is concerned, it has to be "Yesterday", because it's just done more than I could have ever hoped for.
Q: Does "Yesterday" mean something different to you now that you're 47?
A: Yes, it sure does. Yeah, when I was 20, or whatever it was, when I wrote it, I was a 20-year-old singing "I'm not half the man I used to be." It's like, you know, it's very presumptuous for a 20-year-old, but at 47, it means something.
Q: At the time, did you ever think you'd be rocking now?
A: I didn't think we'd be still rocking. Now, the great thing, as I say, is you look at it, what a lot of us have done recently is look at people like Muddy Waters, and think it didn't matter that he was 70, you know, still singing the blues. And I think instead of youth-oriented things, it's become a music-oriented thing. So I think as long as you can still deliver, I think kids. I mean, you look at the age of this audience. I'm very surprised the sort of young people. I thought it would just be my age group mainly, there's a lot of young kids, and they know this material.
Q: What are they going to look at for nostalgia?
A: I don't know. I'm always talking to my kids about that. You tell me what songs are going to be remembered. It's going to be, I don't know, some rap song?
Q: Are you enjoying all this, Paul?
A: Yes, it's great. I really am.
Q: How do you like your music today?
A: My music? I still like it.
Q: Russ Gibb, the man who started the premature Paul's dead rumor, asked me to pass along to you when I got here, the fact that the rumors of his premature death are indeed rumors. He's still alive and well, and teaching at Dearborn High School
A: Oh, really? Good. Say hi for me.
