Paul McCartney Reveals the Radical Reason He Won't Take Selfies With Fans
If you ever cross paths with Paul McCartney and reach for your phone, don't be surprised if you walk away with a story about a monkey instead of a photo.
The Beatles legend, 83, opened up on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast — which aired May 14 — about why he has a firm no-photo policy with fans, and the reasoning is more personal than most people might expect.
"I Don't Do Pictures"
McCartney says the dynamic has shifted dramatically since his early days of fame. When the Beatles were at their peak, he recalls the band loving the attention. But smartphones have changed the nature of fan encounters entirely.
"As time's gone by, things have changed," he said on the podcast. "Now — phones. So if I meet someone, they're reaching for their phone, and I say, 'I'm sorry, I don't do pictures.' And that is radical these days."
For McCartney, saying no to the photo is about preserving something he considers essential — a sense of ordinariness. The moment he starts treating himself as something larger than life, he says, is the moment he stops being himself.
"I feel normalness is very important to me," he said. "The minute I get above myself and start thinking I'm something else, I won't like me. So it's very important for me to be just me."
He even recalled making the same case to Oprah Winfrey, who was apparently just as puzzled as most fans. When she asked why, his response was blunt: "I don't want to. It's as simple as that."
The Monkey Story
When fans push back and want a more detailed explanation, McCartney admits he has one ready — though he acknowledges it tends to run long.
It starts on a beachfront in Saint-Tropez, where he once observed a man charging tourists to take photos with a monkey. That image stuck with him as a metaphor for what fan photos feel like from his side of the camera.
"I really do not want to feel like that monkey," he said. "And when I take a picture with you, I do feel like him. I'm not me. I'm suddenly something else. It's a phenomenon of how we live now."
He's self-aware enough to know how the explanation lands. "And then they go back to their friends and they say, 'You met Paul McCartney? Did you get a picture?' 'No, he just went on about some bloody monkey,'" he joked.
New Music on the Way
McCartney also used the podcast appearance to reflect on fame more broadly, saying he actively avoids dwelling on the scale of his own success. "If I really sat and thought about it — my head would explode," he said.
While fans may not be getting a selfie, they are getting new music. McCartney's 21st solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is set for release May 29. The record includes "Home to Us," his first-ever duet with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr. He also recently appeared as the musical guest for the Season 51 finale of Saturday Night Live, his first regular-season appearance on the show in nearly 14 years, where he performed new material alongside classics including "Band on the Run."
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