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Paul McCartney gave fans a shock with a surprise cameo on one of Liverpool's most famous Beatles tours.
On July 20, Liverpool's long-running Magical Mystery Tour, which guides avid Beatles fans around key locations in their hometown, including each of their childhood homes and notable sites such as Strawberry Fields and The Cavern Club, got the shock of a lifetime. With impeccable timing, the tour bus stopped at a set of traffic lights just as the 84-year-old's car did. And McCartney wasn't exactly alone, either.
Guests quickly spotted McCartney, who smiled and waved. However, the fans were given another shock when McCartney showed them he was on a FaceTime call with fellow Beatle, Ringo Starr. This comes after McCartney said he "never knows" about retirement.
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Speaking to the BBC, driver and tour guide Neal Morton said it was "surreal" to spot McCartney while touring the city. "I had pulled up at the traffic lights on Hope Street when who should I see – Sir Paul with Ringo on Facetime," he said.
Morton added, "He waved to us, and everybody took photos. The passengers could not believe it." Unfortunately, McCartney and the tour group didn't have time to speak further after their run-in, but it was still an incredibly lucky moment for the fans.
McCartney is back in Liverpool to honor actor Stephen Graham (Adolescence, The Irishman) with a special award from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), which is expected to take place on July 21st. McCartney is a co-founder of the school and often attends graduation ceremonies.
The unofficial tour, named after The Beatles' 1967 record, takes fans on a two-hour visit to Liverpool's Beatle-related locations, including the group's childhood homes, Strawberry Fields, and Penny Lane. It finishes at the Cavern Club, where the group played early shows.
McCartney released his 20th solo studio album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, on May 29, his first since 2020's McCartney III. Following the record drop, the singer-songwriter said he isn't looking toward retirement.
While the music icon doesn't owe anyone anything at this point in his incredible music career, he still wants to please his fans. He knows they need to hear his music live. Still, he "never knows" about retirement, as he doesn't feel it's time yet.
Speaking with NME, McCartney said of retirement, "I don't know. I never know, y'know?" The singer-songwriter still doesn't feel old enough to stop releasing music, which he's done since his early 20s.
He explained, "I remember when I was 50 years old, my manager at the time said, 'Well, are you thinking of retiring?' I went, 'Uh, I don’t think so.' But he obviously thought, 50… which, I get it, because we thought 30 was really old [when] we were 20. So 30 was like that'd be unseemly, but it came, and it went, and people were still playing, and audiences like the music."
McCartney ultimately keeps performing and releasing music because of the fans. He knows that younger generations of fans keep emerging, and he wants to give them the same performance that the original fans received.
He said, "If the music is from that period, they don't get to hear it live any other way, so you've got to hear Neil Young live to get the whole feel of Neil – the Neil feel. Same with a lot of bands – the Stones, The Eagles. There's nothing like it."
McCartney added, "Creative satisfaction is just writing a song – it's still the same old satisfaction that it was. There's something magical about it."
Speaking on BBC 6 in 2018, McCartney said he'd retire from music when he no longer enjoyed it. At the time, he said he didn't really know what he'd be retiring from because he'd still play music no matter what. Music is his life, and stopping would be like losing a part of himself.
"I'm like these footballers," he said. "People say, 'When are you gonna retire?' And they will nearly always say, 'Well, when I don't enjoy it, or when the legs give in,' or something like that. When there's a factor, that makes them retire. I don't think any of them want to retire, particularly.
"And I was talking to – name-dropping, clunk – Willie Nelson, and I was talking about this whole retiring thing, because he's older than I am, even. And he says, 'Retire from what?' And I think that just says it. Retire from what?"
