Paul McCartney has successfully maintained his fame for six decades. He has been a beloved celebrity since his early 20s and is still widely adored in his 80s. While he struggled with the trappings of fame alongside his Beatles bandmates, he enjoyed celebrity more than them. According to a friend of the band, McCartney was the only one to let fame inflate his ego.
Paul McCartney enjoyed fame more than the other Beatles
The Beatles’ rise to success was relatively quick and it lifted them to astronomical heights. They became the most famous people in the world, unable to go anywhere without fans swarming them. While they were happy for their success, each of The Beatles struggled with this level of celebrity. They had completely lost their ability to live normal lives, and, at least in the early 1960s, their fame eclipsed their music.
According to a friend of the band, McCartney didn’t struggle with fame as much as his bandmates, though.
“Paul is the only one of the boys who’s had it go to his head,” the friend told The Saturday Evening Post in 1964, per The Guardian.
McCartney knew that to maintain their success, he had to lean into his new fame. He encouraged the band to keep touring and making public appearances. While his ego may have driven this, he helped The Beatles stay relevant all throughout the 1960s.
McCartney has also admitted to thinking highly of himself, but he doesn’t reflect on his status for too long to stay grounded.
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“Occasionally I stop and think, I am Paul McCartney, f***in’ hell, that is a total freak-out! You know, Paul McCartney!” he said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “Just the words, it sounds like a total kind of legend. But of course, you don’t want to go thinking that too much because it takes over.”
Paul McCartney said it wouldn’t have been easy for The Beatles to give up fame
While McCartney’s bandmates complained of the trappings of fame, he believed they underestimated how much they liked it. McCartney didn’t think any of them would have wanted to wake up and find themselves in a normal life. He told them this when they fantasized about quitting the band and leaving fame behind.
“I said, ‘Hey, the hardest thing for us guys to do would be to give up fame. To wake up the next morning and not be a star anymore can’t happen. What do you mean, you’re not going to be a star? You’re going to be the retired star. And if that’s what you want, then that’s a different matter but don’t get this idea that everyone’s going to go away. Greta Garbo got more attention than ever with “I want to be alone.” They were still trying to take topless pictures of her when she was seventy.’”
He was right. Even after The Beatles broke up, they remained incredibly famous. Fifty years after their breakup, they are each household names across the globe.
He shared how he copes with celebrity
While fame might have fed McCartney’s ego, it was also something he had to grapple with for years. Even today, he has to separate his public persona from his private one in order to stay sane.
“It’s not always possible to just compartmentalize it as easily as that — me as a person, and me as a Beatle — but I have had a certain ability in my life to do that,” he said. “I think it helps keep you sane, actually, if your famous side is a little bit removed from you yourself; you can withdraw from it, you can go home after a Beatles session and switch off.”
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