Paul McCartney: 'I'll retire when I feel like it, but not today'

Paul McCartney, who is currently in the midst of a US tour, has revelaed that a late found confidence in playing lead guitar means he has no plans for retiring.

He said in an interview with Rolling Stone after his recent New York show that he's ready and raring to go following his recent illness. 

"I was saying to someone the other day that one of the very first gigs we did," he said. "I don't even think we were The Beatles, it was the Quarrymen - one of the very first times I ever played with John [Lennon], we did a very early gig at a thing called a co-op hall, and I had a lead solo in one of the songs and I totally froze," he recalled. 

McCartney continued: "My mum had come, and I really played the crappiest solo ever. I said, 'That's it. I'm never going to play lead guitar again'. It was just too nerve-wracking onstage. So for years, I just became rhythm guitar and bass player and played a bit of piano, do a bit of this, that and the other. 

"But nowadays, I play lead guitar, and that's the thing that draws me forward. I enjoy it. So, yeah, that means the answer to 'Are you going to retire?' is 'When I feel like it'. But that's not today."

In the interview he also added that he still enjoys playing hit material he recorded in the '60s and '70s and respects the audienes desire to re-visit their favourite songs.

"Last night at the show, I said, 'I know what you think of new numbers'," he joked. "Because when we do the old numbers – something like 'And I Love Her' - I see all the phones come out.

"You see all the little lights, ding-ding-ding-ding-ding, like Disneyland. And why did you just get your phone out? 'Because it's my old favourite'. That's reality. And like me and the Bill Haley concert, I don't want to cheat those people. So we mix it up occasionally, but mainly we hope we're pleasing the various facets in the audience."

He continued: "People say, 'But why do you care, man?' Someone like Bob Dylan doesn't necessarily care - he'll just do what he wants, and that's cool.

"I say, 'Yeah, but I have these memories that haunt me of these concerts that I went to and these records that I bought'. I don't want those people in my audience thinking, 'Hey, we came for big hits, and you played a bunch of shit'."

Upcoming tour dates:

August 02 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Field
August 05 – Missoula, MT @ Washington-Grizzly Stadium
August 07 – Salt Lake City, UT @ EnergySolutions Arena
August 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dodger Stadium
August 12 – Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Center
August 14 – San Francisco, A @ Candlestick Park
October 02 - Lubbock, TX @ United Spirit Arena
October 11 - New Orleans, LA @ The Smoothie King Center
October 13 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
October 15 - Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
October 16 - Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
October 25 - Jacksonville, FL @ Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
October 28 - Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
October 30 – Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum