McCartney - the Paparazzi, Beatle & Drugs

2 months ago 13th Sep 09:50

Sir Paul McCartney insists on slowing down for the paparazzi because he worries he'll suffer the same fate as Princess Diana if he tries to out chase them.

The former Beatles star admits images of the tragic royal flash before his eye whenever he's being tailed by keen photographers - and the idea he could die like she did makes him take a moment to be polite, pose for pictures and then ask the snappers to leave him alone.

He says, "Nobody's learned anything, so you find yourself in a high-speed car chase and you go, 'I shouldn't be doing this'.

"So you slow down, get out the car, (say), 'Hello gentlemen, would you like a picture?'"

The former Beatle also admits he still can't believe he and his fellow Beatles survived the swinging sixties - because they took so many drugs and often couldn't even think straight.

So you slow down, get out the car, (say), 'Hello gentlemen, would you like a picture?'Sir Paul McCartney

The Yesterday singer admits the Fab Four overused narcotics during their heyday and often fell asleep recording musical masterpieces they composed while high.

In an exclusive interview with U.S. news show Entertainment Tonight, he says, "(We were) overdoing substances and really getting crazy, as we all were... (We'd be) falling asleep - the kinda thing when you can hardly get your head off the pillow. You go, 'Woah, I'd better get my head off this pillow.'"

But one drug-induced state inspired McCartney to write Beatles classic Let It Be.

He adds, "I had a dream, where my mother, who had been dead, by then, 10 years came to me in the dream and was very sort of helpful and very calming, and it was lovely just to see her... and she said, 'Don't worry about it... Let it be.'

"I went, 'OK', and I felt so good... and I woke up and wrote Let It Be. I thought, 'That's a good idea for a song.'"