Paul McCartney Refused to Play Beatles Songs With Wings Even Though It Made His Life More Difficult

After The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney began touring for the first time in years with his band Wings. The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, so many people hoped to hear McCartney perform them live with Wings. He shared why he decided not to do that on their first tour, even though it complicated things for him.

Paul McCartney didn’t want to play Beatles songs on his 1st tour with Wings

McCartney went years without touring, so he admitted he was “very nervous” ahead of his first concert dates with Wings.

“The main thing I didn’t want to face was the torment of five rows of press people with little pads all looking and saying, ‘Oh, well, he’s not as good as he was.’ So we decided to go out on that university tour, which made me less nervous because it was less of a big deal,” he told Rolling Stone. “We went out on that tour and by the end of that I felt quite ready for something else, and we went to Europe. I was pretty scared on the Europe tour. That was a bit more of a big deal, here he is, ladies and gentlemen, sold all the tickets out.”

He also felt concerned about the way people would react to his decision not to play any Beatles songs.

“We decided not to do any Beatle material, which was a killer, of course, because it meant we had to do an hour of other material, and we didn’t have it, then,” he said. “I didn’t have something like ‘My Love’ that was sort of mine. I felt like everyone wanted Beatles stuff, so I was pretty nervous on that.”

Paul McCartney played one old song on his 1st tour with Wings

On the first Wings tour, the only song McCartney performed from the past was “Long Tall Sally.” This was the first song he ever sang on a stage.

“The first time I ever sang on a stage I did ‘Long Tall Sally.’ I must have been pretty young, probably 14; I feel like I might have been 11, I don’t know,” he said. “We went to stay with our parents at a holiday camp called Butlins, a branch in Wales. They used to have these talent shows, and one of my cousins-in-law was one of the red coats who had something to do with the entertainment. He called us up on the stage, I had my guitar with me. Looking back on it, it must have been a put-up job, I don’t know what I was doing there with my guitar.”

He sang a brief set with his brother, which they closed with “Long Tall Sally.”

“I went up with my brother Mike, who had just recovered from breaking his arm and looked all pale. He had his arm in a big sling,” McCartney said. “We used to do an Everly Brothers number, something like ‘Bye Bye Love.’ I think it might have been ‘Bye Bye Love,’ in fact. We did that, and then I finished with ‘Long Tall Sally.’”

He hadn’t wanted to go so long without touring

McCartney had gone six years without when he set out on his 1972 tour with Wings. He said it had never been his intention to go so long without performing live.

“Oh, no, no, no. With the Beatles we did a big American tour, and. I think the feeling, mainly from George and John, was, ‘Oh, this is getting a little bit uhhh …’ But I thought, ‘No, you can’t give up live playing, we’d be crazy to,’” he said. “But then we did a concert tour I really hated and I came off stormy and saying, ‘Bloody hell, I really agree with you now.’”