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Q: Paul, it's good to see you.
A: Hey, lovely to see you, Jody.
Q: I've got to tell you, congratulations on the gold record for "Driving Rain".
A: Oh, thank you, man. Yeah, that's nice, isn't it?
Q: It's a good record.
A: Great. Yeah, thank you. I like it. It's picking up some interest from the tour.
Q: I want to welcome you back to Texas. If I'm not mistaken, like, in '76, when you did the Wings Over America tour, didn't you start in Texas and kind of keep a house for a while?
A: Yeah, because Showco were here. So we rehearsed here. We started the whole thing off here. Tried out all the systems, you know. So, yeah, we were here for a little while. Dallas, yeah. Nice.
Q: Kind of hot.
A: It was very hot, yeah. But we bought a horse, actually. We used to rehearse, I think, in Fort Worth. So we'd kind of go from Dallas to Fort Worth. And on the way one day, Linda spotted this Appaloosa. We ended up buying it and bringing him back to England. And he's like the father of many of our horses. She loved those horses.
Q: You have so many songs to choose from for your set list, I was wondering how you physically came up with it. Do you have a place where you took out all your albums and looked for songs or --
A: No. You know, it's -- it was much easier than that. What I do is, I just see how much I can remember. You know, just like instant. I just get out a bit of paper and a pencil and just think, "Okay. Now, if I was going to this show, what would I like to hear." You know, just put myself in a seat kind of thing out there. "Oh, I'd probably like Maybe I'm Amazed." That's okay. I just write a list out in no particular order. Until you get that list, your main must-sees kind of thing. And you figure, well, some of the tours the end of the show you might just do Let it Be. And you know, you just get -- find out the ones you think you'll probably do.
And then there's kind of like a second wave where I just start putting down what seems like sort of slightly madder ideas. You know, slightly different things. And I had decided, because I've been doing some poetry readings, to do a song that I've been doing in the readings, just reading it as a lyric, Here Today, which I wrote for John. So I wrote that down. And I ended up, you know, with a big list of ideas. And had too many. We had -- you know, we couldn't have done them all. But I sent that list to the band who were mainly in America. One of the guys was in London. And just sort of said, "Okay. This is the ballpark. This is what I'm thinking about. What do you think?" And they all got back and said, "Yeah, great." And Rusty, the guitar player said, "Hey, have you considered doing Getting Better," because he liked that song. I said, "No, I hadn't, actually." So add that to the list. So we just took a couple of suggestions. And that's it. We got into rehearsal. We didn't -- we just honed it down now.
Q: Did you think about doing anything from "Flaming Pie" or "Run Devil Run"?
A: Yeah. You know, I was going to do -- I was going to open with Honey Hush. (Sings): "Come into this house. Stop all..." -- you know, sort of this "come into this house." Good welcoming song. But the idea changed on that and that sort of fell by the wayside. And I was going to do (from) "Flaming Pie" … I think I was going to do Calico Skies. But, you know, in rehearsals these things just change and certain numbers just oust others, if that's the word.
Q: There's been a "Beatles Anthology", a "Lennon Anthology", "Wingspan". You've got so many rare songs and B-sides and unreleased material. Do you think you'll ever get around to making your own Anthology? Is your stuff organized to do that?
A: You know (smiles), the bootleggers have got it. It's all out there anyway. I just have to arrest one of them and put it out! You know, it's one of those things I'll get around to. I do a lot of stuff that's really just what I've got time for. So this tour is taking up a lot of time now. People are starting to wonder whether we're going to do a live album from this tour. Seems to be a lot of demand for that. And I love the band. I love what we're doing on the tour. We're having some good shows. So they're thinking of doing a DVD or something and a live album. So that's starting to get interesting. So that will probably come up before an Anthology. But one of these days, I'll get around to all that.
Q: And after the tour, there's been talk that you might play in Cuba or China after your wedding. Is that just rumors or --
A: It's the first I've heard of it.
Q: I was reading in a book that 40 years ago today, the Beatles signed their first recording contract. There's always an anniversary…
A: It couldn't be me, man.
Q: You're too young for that?
A: Couldn't have been me. Yeah, I was in kindergarten, I think, at that time.
Q: Do you keep up with all these anniversaries or just when people tell you?
A: No. It's nice when people tell you, you know. It's hard enough keeping up with my family's birthdays. That's hard enough, just anniversaries generally. So the Beatles' things. That's the nice thing about the Beatles. There's always someone who will tell you: "Did you know it's the 200th date since" -- and you go "Wow, is it?"
Q: You've been talking about plans for "Let it Be." I just wanted to kind of get a clear idea. Do you envision a DVD with extra material and then a new version of the album that's sort of without the Phil Spector production?
A: Yeah. What happened was, I met Michael Lindsay-Hogg on an airplane somewhere. And we got talking and he said that every time he goes into this certain shop, all the guys behind the counter say to him, "When are you going to have a DVD of "Let it Be"?" So I said, "Well, I think it's a great idea." And there's obviously a bit of demand there. So I talked to our guys at Apple. Talked to Neil (Aspinall). And he thought it was a good idea. What I like about it -- and I said, "If we do that, we can then issue the original version of all the songs," which is just us guys playing, before Phil got to it. Now, I don't blame Phil, but it was really -- I think it was really Allen Klein at the time who kind of made a musical judgment. He said, "I don't think it's good enough." And it's like, I just disagreed with him. I said, "I think it is." But he wanted to gussy it all up. So they called in Phil and they called it, what, Reproduced For Disc or something. And I just thought, you know, it's still a good record. But it had a lot of stuff on it that I wouldn't have put on there if I'd have been involved. But I was kind of backing out of the whole situation. It got too ugly for me. So I like the idea of doing the film. And it's soundtrack is virtually that bare album, because that's the music we were making during the making of that film. So I think that's going to happen.
And yeah, I don't know about unreleased stuff. But they always look to try and find a bit of that stuff.
Q: I've seen the show last weekend, Saturday, at the Staples Center (in L.A.), Sunday in Anaheim. Very emotional concert that's going on. You know, happy... sad. And I know you're in a great place. Congratulations, by the way, on the forthcoming wedding.
A: Oh, thank you.
Q: But it is emotional. I was just curious, do you believe in an afterlife, where you would be reunited with the loved ones that have left?
A: I hope so, you know. I don't have like a very firm belief, like, "oh, I know that's going to happen." But I certainly hope so. Some people see life and beyond as kind of a big struggle and stuff. I'm kind of lucky enough to think of it as a bit of miracle. Sort of a wonderful thing. That sometimes gets really difficult, you know, and you have to cope. But it doesn't turn me off of it. I'm very optimistic. So I don't know. It would be great.
Q: Well, Paul, you're part of the miracle, you know. You give us a lot of love and we appreciate it.
A: Aw, man.
Q: We want to send it back to you. Your birthday is June 18th. The big 6-0.
A: That's right.
Q: Any plans... special plans to celebrate that day?
A: No special ones, except, just -- for me it's like another birthday, which I always celebrate in good manner. So I actually don't have any special plans. It's not going to be like a great big one with everybody coming in from all ends of the earth. Fifty was the same for me. And like 40. Those big turnover ones don't seem to bother me too much, as long as I'm having a good time. And I certainly am this year. Touch wood, you know. You never know. But I'm -- like you say, I'm feeling happy. I've had a lot of troubles in the last few years. And even though the troubles don't just sort of go away, you still can get to a better place occasionally. I think I'm in that better place now. And the tour's going so great, the audiences are just beautiful and bananas. And I love them. They seem to love us. And the band is great. I'm really loving playing with the band. Just even soundchecks and stuff are like a bit of a buzz, just hearing the noise we make. I think we make a good little noise. And we like each other, which is a plus. So yeah, I'll just have a good birthday.
Q: Well, here's to another 60 birthdays, Paul.
A: Well, that would be good.
Q: And have a great concert tonight. I'm looking forward to it, man.
A: Cool, man. Thank you very much.
Q: Welcome back to Texas.
(End of this interview, read on for part 2....) |
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