At 71, Paul McCartney has just released his 24th
post-Beatles album, New, and is generating music at a pace that puts artists a
quarter of his age to shame.
And in a remarkably candid cover story by Rolling Stone
contributing editor Jonah Weiner (on newsstands Friday) McCartney discusses the
drive keeps him creating fresh music — as well as the memories of his Beatles
bandmates that continue to shape his life today.
Perhaps most shockingly, McCartney reveals that although
he's always teaming up with fresh talent — New features production by Adele
collaborator Paul Epworth, Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson, Giles Martin
(son of legendary Beatles producer George) and frequent Kings of Leon partner
Ethan Johns — he also consulted with another source, someone who knows his
music intimately: John Lennon.
"If I'm at a point where I go, 'I'm not sure about
this,' I'll throw it across the room to John," McCartney tells RS.
"He'll say, 'You can't go there, man.' And I'll say, 'You're quite right.
How about this?' 'Yeah, that's better.' We'll have a conversation. I don't want
to lose that."
McCartney also reveals that his long-bitter relationship
with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has turned a corner. Describing Ono as a
"badass," he says he's moved on. "I thought, 'If John loved her,
there's got to be something. He's not stupid,'" McCartney says. "It's
like, what are you going to do? Are you going to hold a grudge you never really
had?" In fact, another voice from the past — that of George Harrison — had
encouraged him to forgive and forget. "George would say to me, 'You don't
want stuff like that hanging around in your life.'"
But despite his spirit of reconciliation, McCartney
maintains there's one person he will never forgive: John Lennon's murderer,
Mark David Chapman.
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