Paul McCartney paid a virtual visit to “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday, and the rock icon revealed that he and wife Nancy Shevell are quarantining separately.
“The only bad thing about it is that [wife] Nancy is in New York, so we have an enforced separation,” Sir Paul told Stern. “I’m lucky in one respect in that I’m locked down in the country with my daughter [Mary] and her family. So that makes it better.”
McCartney, 77, compared the spirit of what people are going through during the COVID-19 pandemic to his own childhood experience living through the Second World War.
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“The spirit that [my mom and dad] showed, this ‘we’ll get on with it, we’ll do whatever’s necessary, we’ll all pull together and we’ll try and stay happy and we’ll thank all the people who look after us and the people who fight for us, et cetera’ — that spirit is kind of what they needed and it’s what we need now,” he said. “It is around, that’s what we’re seeing now. A lot of people are pulling together and it’s a great thing,” he said. “It is good to see that, it’s inspiring.”
He added: “We’re all going through this together… the clouds will roll away.”
Given that Stern is a Beatles super fan, McCartney also answered some questions about his one-time band — including Stern’s insistence that he admit that The Beatles were a better band than The Rolling Stones.
McCartney responded with a laugh, “you know you’re going to persuade me to agree with that one. The Stones are a fantastic group, I go to see them every time they come out because they’re a great, great band and Mick can really do it, the singing and the moves, and Keith and now Ronnie and Charlie. They’re great,” he said.
“They’re really, really great. I love ’em… I love The Stones, but I’m with you: The Beatles are better,” he declared.
McCartney also sidestepped Stern’s question about why he hasn’t teamed up with Ringo Starr, the only other surviving Beatle, for a Fab-Four-minus-two reunion tour.
He also dished about the upcoming documentary on the band directed by Peter Jackson of “Lord of the Rings” fame, and told Stern that he’s already seen an early cut of “The Beatles: Get Back”, culled from hours of unreleased footage shot during the recording sessions of the Let It Be album.
“It’s great,” he said. “I’m not boasting, because I’m just talking not about me, but this group I was in. But it’s bloody great. And you see this kind of thing, you see this relationship between me and John, me and George, and you get it. You’ll get it.”
