-Let's talk about the album,
"Egypt Station." Did you paint this?
Did you do this? -I did, yeah. I did this front cover
and the next one, yeah. -Gosh, and --
-Yeah. -And it's a conce--
And I love that it's a fold-out, 'cause as a, you know, as a kid,
this was my wallpaper. -Yeah.
-Yeah, exactly. -You know, I -- Yeah, I like the fact
that if people are gonna pay hard-earned money...
-Yeah. -...that you've got to give them
some value, you know? -Yeah.
-So, I like -- I'm like you. When I was a kid, just look
at album covers forever. -And just stare at them.
-You stare at them and try to find
all little bits in them. -This is, like -- would you say
it's a concept album? 'Cause I would say, like -- It starts off
with "Opening Station." Then, you go -- it almost goes
different stations. -Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you know, we wanted to do something
that was a bit like that 'cause we figured
we can't really do kind of the modern pop album...
-Yeah. -...where it's, like,
just a bunch of singles. And, I mean, people like
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have got
that kind of thing covered, and they've got
better legs than me. [ Laughter ]
-They absolutely do. -Just
-Yeah. But when you --
when you first started out, you weren't doing
concept albums. You -- You...
-No, that's true. You know, it was originally
the only reason you got an album was when you had enough
successful singles. Then they'd bundle it
into an album. And that was what
albums were for us. But after a while,
we started to get intrigued with the whole idea
that this is -- In those days,
it was 40 minutes, 20 minutes each side
on the vinyl. So we thought, "Wow.
You know, wait a minute. You could do stuff with this."
-Yeah. -So, we started
to get imaginative, you know. So, I'm -- I'm trying to sort of
go a bit back to that theory that you might even listen to it
the whole way through. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. Yeah, you might. -Who knows?
-Do you have -- [ Cheers and applause ] You will. Do you have any favorite concept
albums that aren't Beatles? -Yeah. I think "Dark Side of the Moon"
is a great album. -Absolutely.
Pink Floyd. [ Cheers and applause ] I wanted this --
the producer here, you have, is Greg --
Greg Kurstin is the producer. -Yeah.
-He did -- Not too shabby. He did Adele.
-He did. -And he won a Grammy. And he did Beck,
and he won a Grammy. -Yeah.
-Producer of the Year. Not too shabby to work with him. How does a producer,
even though he's well-respected, how do you give notes to --
to you? -To me.
-Yeah. I mean, I know you're you,
but it's hard -- But, I mean,
if I was your producer, and I said, "Hey, Paul,
I don't know if you need that." -Yeah, no. He just said
everything was great. -"Yeah, no."
[ Laughter ] Oh, is that right?
[ Laughing ] Yeah.
That's the other way to do it. [ Applause ] Yeah, that's the other way
to do it. Just say, "Yeah, it's great." So this is --
You have a new tour. It's gonna open --
It's gonna start -- The Freshen Up Tour
opens September 17th in Canada. [ Cheers and applause ] It's the new --
It's the world tour. And you changed the game
for tours. If you've never seen
Paul McCartney in concert, please g-- I can't even tell you
to go see this enough. -I've never seen him.
-Oh, my gosh. You were sitting next to me...
-How is he? -[ Laughing ]
...on my birthday. -Yeah, I mean, that is the joke
we used to say. We're the only people
who never saw the Beatles. -I know.
Oh, my gosh. Can you imagine that? -We were being Beatles. -You would've loved them.
They're fantastic. -I think I would've liked them.
[ Laughter ] -You would've loved the Beatles.
Yeah, absolutely. But you like
being on tour, right? -Yeah, it's --
-You enjoy it? -Yeah, there's so many
great things about it. The audience is the best thing. [ Cheers and applause ] The warmth you get. -I mean, it's a lot of work. You're going
all around the world. I mean, you're gonna go to Japan and all sorts
of different places, and in England, as well,
obviously. -Liverpool.
-Liverpool, yeah. -All around the world.
-All around the world, yeah. Oww! We let one person
from Liverpool in every night, and that -- he sits
right in that chair. But you're also --
you're headlining the Austin City Limits
Music Festival, October 5th and 12th,
with Metallica, Childish Gambino, Shawn Mendes. It's gonna be great, man!
-It's gonna be great, yeah. -That's gonna be a great show.
-Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. -Well, what is
the surprise thing -- I know it's a surprise,
but in New York City tomorrow, -Yeah.
-I mean, surprise to me. I mean,
no one invited me at all. -I mean, we've been,
basically -- You know,
'cause it's a surprise gig. We haven't been telling anyone.
-Oh, okay, yeah, great. -But the album's title
is "Egypt Station." So there might be
a little clue there. -Oh, is it --
-Station... -A station in New York City.
-New York. -Is it going to be...?
-It might be a grand show. I don't know.
-[ Laughing ] [ Cheers and applause ] -I'll see you tomorrow night at
the Statue of Liberty, buddy. Absolutely.
No. [ Chuckles ] [ Cheers and applause
continues ] I got the --
I got it. Statue of Liberty,
tomorrow night, definitely. Could you tell the line --
this a good line -- that Willie Nelson
once said to you? That somebody interviewed you, and they asked you
about retiring or something. -Yeah.
You know, once you get to the age of 65 or even 64,
but 65, that is the retirement age
when I was growing up. Like, somebody told me
it's 66 now. -They've went up one year. -They added -- added a little
year without telling me. [ Laughter ] -So, I was looking at that
and thinking, "Oh, my God. I'm not ready to retire.
What do I do?" you know? So I was talking
to Willie Nelson about it. I said, "Man, Willie, you know,
are you gonna retire?" He says, "Retire from what?" [ Laughter and applause ] -That is exactly correct. Paul, I love you.
We're gonna see you soon. Thank you so much,
and I really, really, really -- I love you, I love you. [ Cheers and applause ] My thanks to the one and only
Paul McCartney! "Egypt Station"
is available now.
