Paul McCartney Talks New Album ‘McCartney III’ on ‘Fallon’

Ahead of Friday’s release of McCartney III, Paul McCartney virtually stopped by The Tonight Show to talk about the creation of his new album.

“I just was in lockdown and I had some time on my hands, so I started finishing up songs and stuff, thinking this was just for my own fun,” McCartney said. “And then suddenly I had like about 11 of them; it was like, ‘Oh, this could probably be an album.’ But the fact that I hadn’t even considered the fact that I was doing it made it better, more fun.”

McCartney, who first recorded snippets of the McCartney III tracks on his iPhone during lockdown, would test his new songs on his family during dinnertime.

“The kids are running around and someone would ask, ‘What did you do in the studio today?’ I’d pull my phone out, get my little boombox going, and I would play it for them,” McCartney said. “So they got a preview of the whole album a day at the time, but it made it more fun, really, because it was like I was making it for them.”

As for how McCartney discovers new music, he said: “I listen to stuff on Spotify, I listen to stuff on the radio. I got a guy who sends me new music that’s just being released, to keep me up with modern taste.”

McCartney was also asked whether he would like to collaborate with younger artists like Taylor Swift and Adele. “Sometimes I let it happen, I let it come to me, so if someone gets in touch and says ‘I’d like to work with you,’ that’s more likely. That’s what happened with Kanye, it came through the grapevine that he was interested in working with me,” McCartney said. “There was talk of me doing something with Bob Dylan which I was quite sorta into but it kind of fizzled out.”

The Tonight Show visit was the latest in a series of interviews McCartney made this week on the promotional trail, which included a call-in to the Howard Stern Show to reveal that Taylor Swift moved her Evermore release date to accommodate McCartney III.