Paul McCartney Had a ‘Protective Screen’ Around Him to Keep Things From Getting too Personal

Paul McCartney has been famous for the majority of his life. He has given countless interviews, run into many fans, and continues to perform concerts in his 80s. Because of this, fans may feel as though they know him well. While he can be incredibly candid in interviews, those who know him have said he has a protective screen around himself. According to McCartney, every member of the Beatles has had to create a shield.

Paul McCartney became famous in his early 20s

After McCartney met John Lennon in 1957, they began playing music in the band The Quarrymen. They recruited George Harrison, and in 1962, after they had started calling themselves The Beatles, Ringo Starr joined the band. It didn’t take long for them to become the biggest band in the world. 

During their rapid ascension to fame, McCartney was in his early 20s. When Beatlemania came to the United States in 1964, he was just 21 years old. As such, he’s spent far more time in the public eye than out of it. According to Starr, they managed to handle this level of fame because they had each other.

“Elvis went downhill because he seemed to have no friends, just a load of sycophants,” Starr said, per the book With a Little Help by Michael Seth Starr. “Whereas with us, individually, we all went mad, but the other three always brought us back. That’s what saved us. I remember being totally bananas thinking, I am the one, and the other three would look at me and say, ‘Scuse me, what are you doing?’ I remember each of us getting into that state.”

Though he was famous, Paul McCartney maintained a shield around himself

Each member of The Beatles also had to build up shields around themselves. According to a friend, Billy Hatton, who had known the band since 1961, McCartney shut down if people got too personal with him. 

“Paul always had this aura about him,” Hatton said, per the book Paul McCartney: A Life by Peter Ames Carlin. “He’d have a laugh with you, he was lovely. But he always had this protective screen, like there was something he didn’t want to tell you. If you got too personal, too close, he’d shut down.”

The Beatles bassist said one band member had more of a protective shield

According to McCartney, every member of the band had to build a protective shield around themselves. He believed that because of Starr’s upbringing, however, his shield was the strongest.

“I don’t want to bring in the violins, but we all came from hardship,” McCartney told Rolling Stone in 2015. “All of us except for George [Harrison] lost someone. I lost my mum when I was 14. John [Lennon] lost his mum. But Ringo had it worst. His father was gone; he was so sick they told his mum he wasn’t going to live. Imagine making up your life from that, in that environment. No family, no school. He had to invent himself. We all had to come up with a shield, but Ringo came up with the strongest shield.”