Paul McCartney: 'I came in this to get out of having a job. And to pull birds'
In 1989, a Liverpool-born music journalist was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London and invited to interview the star. They had met before and enjoyed a good rapport. In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer (right) continued to meet, interview and work closely with McCartney, their conversations moving between music – life as one of the Beatles and later with Wings – and his most private feelings on John Lennon and his beloved Linda, among others.
Over the last 35 years Du Noyer has interviewed McCartney more often than any other magazine writer. Conversations with McCartney is the result. Drawing from their interview sessions and coupling McCartney’s own candid thoughts with Du Noyer’s observations, the book is an intimate portrait spanning McCartney’s entire musical career.
THE nearest I have come to dying, so far, was an asthma attack in childhood. I found myself in a Liverpool hospital with an oxygen mask clamped to my face and radio headphones on my ears. The station was broadcasting the Beatles’ new record Abbey Road in its entirety. That is why, when people call the group’s music ‘life-affirming’, I understand them in a very literal way. At that moment, I suddenly realised how much I loved them, and how much I wanted to live. That was in 1969.
Whereupon, of course, the bastards split up.
I forgave them, naturally, and followed all their solo careers with rapt attention. I grew up and became a music journalist, with the good luck to interview Paul McCartney on many occasions. John Lennon died before I ever had a chance to meet him, which is my biggest professional regret. But Paul and I seemed to hit it off.
Source: Liverpool Confidential
