-Let's talk about the album, "Egypt Station."
Did you paint this? Did you do this?
-I did, yeah.
I did this front cover and the next one, yeah.
-Gosh, and -- -Yeah.
-And it's a conce-- And I love that it's a fold-out,
'cause as a, you know, as a kid, this was my wallpaper.
-Yeah. -Yeah, exactly.
-You know, I --
Yeah, I like the fact that if people are gonna pay
hard-earned money... -Yeah.
-...that you've got to give them some value, you know?
-Yeah. -So, I like -- I'm like you.
When I was a kid, just look at album covers forever.
-And just stare at them. -You stare at them
and try to find all little bits in them.
-This is, like -- would you say it's a concept album?
'Cause I would say, like --
It starts off with "Opening Station."
Then, you go -- it almost goes different stations.
-Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know,
we wanted to do something that was a bit like that
'cause we figured we can't really do
kind of the modern pop album... -Yeah.
-...where it's, like, just a bunch of singles.
And, I mean, people like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé
have got that kind of thing covered,
and they've got better legs than me.
[ Laughter ] -They absolutely do.
-Just -Yeah.
But when you -- when you first started out,
you weren't doing concept albums.
You -- You... -No, that's true.
You know, it was originally the only reason you got an album
was when you had enough successful singles.
Then they'd bundle it into an album.
And that was what albums were for us.
But after a while, we started to get intrigued
with the whole idea that this is --
In those days, it was 40 minutes,
20 minutes each side on the vinyl.
So we thought, "Wow. You know, wait a minute.
You could do stuff with this." -Yeah.
-So, we started to get imaginative, you know.
So, I'm -- I'm trying to sort of go a bit back to that theory
that you might even listen to it the whole way through.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah. Yeah, you might.
-Who knows? -Do you have --
[ Cheers and applause ]
You will.
Do you have any favorite concept albums that aren't Beatles?
-Yeah.
I think "Dark Side of the Moon" is a great album.
-Absolutely. Pink Floyd.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I wanted this -- the producer here, you have,
is Greg -- Greg Kurstin is the producer.
-Yeah. -He did -- Not too shabby.
He did Adele. -He did.
-And he won a Grammy.
And he did Beck, and he won a Grammy.
-Yeah. -Producer of the Year.
Not too shabby to work with him.
How does a producer, even though he's well-respected,
how do you give notes to -- to you?
-To me. -Yeah.
I mean, I know you're you, but it's hard --
But, I mean, if I was your producer,
and I said, "Hey, Paul, I don't know if you need that."
-Yeah, no.
He just said everything was great.
-"Yeah, no." [ Laughter ]
Oh, is that right? [ Laughing ]
Yeah. That's the other way to do it.
[ Applause ]
Yeah, that's the other way to do it.
Just say, "Yeah, it's great."
So this is -- You have a new tour.
It's gonna open -- It's gonna start --
The Freshen Up Tour opens September 17th in Canada.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's the new -- It's the world tour.
And you changed the game for tours.
If you've never seen Paul McCartney in concert,
please g--
I can't even tell you to go see this enough.
-I've never seen him. -Oh, my gosh.
You were sitting next to me... -How is he?
-[ Laughing ] ...on my birthday.
-Yeah, I mean, that is the joke we used to say.
We're the only people who never saw the Beatles.
-I know. Oh, my gosh.
Can you imagine that?
-We were being Beatles.
-You would've loved them. They're fantastic.
-I think I would've liked them. [ Laughter ]
-You would've loved the Beatles. Yeah, absolutely.
But you like being on tour, right?
-Yeah, it's -- -You enjoy it?
-Yeah, there's so many great things about it.
The audience is the best thing.
[ Cheers and applause ]
The warmth you get.
-I mean, it's a lot of work.
You're going all around the world.
I mean, you're gonna go to Japan
and all sorts of different places,
and in England, as well, obviously.
-Liverpool. -Liverpool, yeah.
-All around the world. -All around the world, yeah.
Oww! We let one person from Liverpool in every night,
and that -- he sits right in that chair.
But you're also -- you're headlining
the Austin City Limits Music Festival,
October 5th and 12th, with Metallica,
Childish Gambino, Shawn Mendes.
It's gonna be great, man! -It's gonna be great, yeah.
-That's gonna be a great show. -Yeah.
I'm looking forward to it.
-Well, what is the surprise thing --
I know it's a surprise, but in New York City tomorrow,
-Yeah. -I mean, surprise to me.
I mean, no one invited me at all.
-I mean, we've been, basically --
You know, 'cause it's a surprise gig.
We haven't been telling anyone. -Oh, okay, yeah, great.
-But the album's title is "Egypt Station."
So there might be a little clue there.
-Oh, is it -- -Station...
-A station in New York City. -New York.
-Is it going to be...? -It might be a grand show.
I don't know. -[ Laughing ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I'll see you tomorrow night at the Statue of Liberty, buddy.
Absolutely. No.
[ Chuckles ]
[ Cheers and applause continues ]
I got the -- I got it.
Statue of Liberty, tomorrow night, definitely.
Could you tell the line -- this a good line --
that Willie Nelson once said to you?
That somebody interviewed you,
and they asked you about retiring or something.
-Yeah. You know, once you get
to the age of 65 or even 64, but 65,
that is the retirement age when I was growing up.
Like, somebody told me it's 66 now.
-They've went up one year.
-They added -- added a little year without telling me.
[ Laughter ]
-So, I was looking at that and thinking, "Oh, my God.
I'm not ready to retire. What do I do?" you know?
So I was talking to Willie Nelson about it.
I said, "Man, Willie, you know, are you gonna retire?"
He says, "Retire from what?"
[ Laughter and applause ]
-That is exactly correct.
Paul, I love you. We're gonna see you soon.
Thank you so much, and I really, really, really --
I love you, I love you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
My thanks to the one and only Paul McCartney!
"Egypt Station" is available now.