Paul McCartney has credited gym workouts and pilates for helping him stay young as he prepares to mark his 84th birthday later this month.
Secret to Staying Young
Appearing on stage in London to promote his number one new album, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, at the iconic Roundhouse, McCartney was asked how he stays in such great shape. He initially joked "drugs!" before replying more seriously: "I'm vegetarian. That's very good for you these days. I do better exercise… you know I go to the gym and do a bit of pilates. I like it, it's nice to do. Whereas at school I hated physical education."
Reflecting on ageing, he said: "When you're a kid, y'know when I was young I wrote 'When I'm 64', thinking, you know, 64 my God, that's so old. And now I'm coming up to 84. When you're a kid, you just look at older people, and I think, in truth, you think they're a bit thick, really. As you hearing goes, you realise that older people just couldn't hear the question!"
Hearing Issues
Host Rob Brydon then asked the Beatles legend if his hearing was OK. McCartney replied: "My hearing can be dodgy, sometimes. It seems pretty good but you miss little bits of words. I was talking to Nancy [his wife] one time and it turned out she was talking about food or something and I misheard her and said 'what's Sid Bernstein got to do with anything?'. Anyway she wasn't talking about Sid Bernstein."
Glastonbury Inspiration
McCartney, who is celebrating his 24th UK Number One album, also mentioned his wife when discussing the trippy new song Mountain Top, inspired by recent trips to Glastonbury festival. He said: "I've been going to Glastonbury. My wife, Nancy, is a live music fan. I mean, she really.. she's actually turned me on to a lot of stuff. Maybe I'm not that interested in going to it she'll say 'let's go', so we go and I love it. So anyway, we ended up with Glastonbury for a few years in a row, and I liked seeing all the tents, and seeing all the kids that were dancing and stuff, you know. So I just wrote this song from the point of view of one of the hippy girls."
As part of the special event, Paul played music from his new album to fans as he answered questions about his life and reflected on what it took to make his most recent record. He chatted with fans about his very first meeting with producer Andrew Watt in 2021 through to the songwriting and recording process as well as duetting with Ringo Starr for the first time, the artwork development and the album's release.
