There was a moment, during the rise of the Beatles, when Paul McCartney thought he had found the only place in the world where he could walk around without being recognized.
Interviewed by Zane Lowe to talk about his new album, deeply steeped in nostalgia, The Boys of Dungeon Lanethe 83-year-old musician shared some memories of the early years of Beatlemania alongside John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Thinking back to that “very intense period” in the Sixties, when the band conquered the charts around the world, Lowe asked him how he managed to “remain a normal person” and enjoy life in the spotlight.
“I remember that, in the early days of the Beatles, we were recognized almost everywhere, but Ringo and I went on holiday to Greece with our girlfriends and no one knew who we were,” McCartney said. At the time he thought, “How wonderful. We should come back here more often. Even when we become really famous, we can always come to Greece and no one will recognize us.” Then he added: “Obviously it didn't go that way.”
Shortly after, their music — and their faces — also arrived in Greece, and then everywhere in the world. “I realized, 'If I'm lucky, I'll be famous for life.' And I thought, 'Okay, it's time to make a big decision.'” McCartney explained that he found himself at a crossroads: «I could stop and think that it was beautiful. I had had a lot of fun with music, and I could do something else, something more anonymous. Or I could move on.”
To manage a celebrity that has now become inevitable, the musician says he has developed a sort of “strategy”. McCartney attributes much of that balance to his Liverpool family and the values they instilled in him during childhood. “They're the kind of people who put others at ease,” he said, explaining that he learned to do the same simply by growing up around them.
From Rolling Stone US
