TORONTO — Paul McCartney says sharing the raunchier stories of his days in the Beatles doesn’t faze him anymore and he’s getting a kick out of knowing others enjoy the tales.
The 76-year-old musician recently spilled the dirt on the Fab Four in the pages of GQ. One memory involved the time he and his bandmates applauded the loss of George Harrison’s virginity and in another McCartney fessed up to hiring two Las Vegas prostitutes.
“I’m not really trying to get attention, I’m having fun,” the musician said in a phone interview from Quebec.
“I have a feeling that you can actually sort of say a bit more these days than you would’ve wanted to say in previous years.”
McCartney, who launches his Freshen Up tour in Quebec on Monday, says the “spicy stories” he’s shared in recent interviews are only the tip of the iceberg, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be sharing more tales about the “joys of youth.”
“Let’s face it, we were young kids from Liverpool,” he said.
“And then we were young kids from Liverpool on tour getting famous and drawing attention to ourselves. So there’s quite a few stories. Not all suitable for public consumption, I don’t think.”
After his stop in Quebec, McCartney plays dates in Montreal (Sept. 20), Winnipeg (Sept. 28) and Edmonton (Sept. 30) before heading to Japan.
He said he’s especially looking forward to entertaining Canadian audiences.
“It’s always good to play an English-speaking place, although we start in Quebec which is barely an English speaking place,” he says.
“You get a feeling about Canada… they love their music, it’s a very warm audience and I feel a kinship. They come to party and so do we.”
McCartney says returning to the same Beatles and Wings hits each tour doesn’t bother him, even after all these years, because he feeds off the audience’s appreciation for iconic songs like “Hey Jude.”
“I should really be bored of it by now, but I’m not because every time I do it, particularly these days, you see the coming together of people,” he says.
“It’s the fact that the song is working and it’s bringing people together that makes it a joy to play.”
“I like the song,” he adds. “It’s not a bad one.”