Sir Paul McCartney was one part of the famous Beatles quartet that conquered the world in the 1960s. However, in April 1970 the band broke up publicly, leaving all four to go and find their own way. Sir Paul headed to Scotland and, a year later, launched the band Wings, an entity that would go onto sell 22m albums in its own right.
In a new book titled ‘Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run’ an intimate look is given into the band, it’s origins, and what it was like for Paul in the immediate aftermath of the end of the Beatles. Paul, now 83, admitted that it was difficult initially, as the band had been his whole life for so long, and he was left listless about what to do with himself.
Paul said: “Leaving the Beatles, or having the Beatles leave me, whichever way you look at it, was very difficult because that was my life’s job. Soo, when it stopped, it was like ‘What do we do now?’
“In truth, I didn’t have any idea. There were two options: either don’t do music and think of something else, or do music and figure out how you’re going to do that.”
Despite the fame Paul achieved as part of the Beatles, he managed to maintain that success with Wings. Furthermore, Paul’s popularity continued into the 2000s and still endures in the 2020s, going so far as to win the Record of the Year at the 2025 Grammys.
Furthermore, Paul managed to add another award to The Beatles’ long list by using AI to isolate former band mate John Lennon’s voice from a 1978 home demo for the 2023 single ‘Now and Then’.
However, whilst the song became the first AI-assisted song to win a Grammy, Paul has remained critical of the technology, imploring people not to let it rip off artists.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on the matter, Paul warned about AI creating a “Wild West” that didn’t properly protect artists.
He said: “You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it,” he said.
“They don’t have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off. The truth is, the money’s going somewhere. Somebody’s getting paid, so why shouldn’t it be the guy who sat down and wrote Yesterday?
“I think AI is great, and it can do lots of great things….But it shouldn’t rip creative people off. There’s no sense in that.”