It’s very important for me to just be me

Paul McCartney has explained that he doesn’t take selfies with fans because he doesn’t want to feel like a performing monkey.

The Beatles icon is preparing to release his new solo album ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’, a personal reflection on his early years in Liverpool. It is released on May 29 and you can pre-order your copy here.

In an interview with The Rest Is Entertainment, he has given fans an explanation for his policy of refusing to take photos when being stopped on the street, something he admits seems “radical” in this day and age.

“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.”

He continued: “I’m namedropping now, I told that to Oprah, and she said ‘you don’t do pictures?’, and I said ‘no’, and she said, ‘why?’, and I said ‘because I don’t want to’, and it’s as simple as that.”

He explained that it is important to him to keep his “normalness”, and compared the feeling of being in a selfie to that of a monkey he once saw on a beachfront in St. Tropez that people posed for pictures with. “And I really do not want to feel like that monkey!” he added. “And when I take a picture with you, I do feel like him. I’m not me, I’m suddenly something else.”

In the same interview, he admitted that he is still baffled by “a lot of this influencer stuff” that he doesn’t “get” the appeal of, and he recalled going to see a Bob Dylan show where he “couldn’t tell what song he was doing”.

‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’, meanwhile, includes a duet with Ringo Starr on ‘Home To Us’ –  a nostalgic reflection on their Liverpool roots that marks their first ever vocal collaboration. It also features Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri and The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.

McCartney played ‘Days We Left Behind’ from the album on SNL this week, backed by Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums. He also played ‘Band On The Run’ and ‘Coming Up’, and took part in Will Ferrell’s opening monologue.

The doors of 3 Savile Row in London’s Mayfair, meanwhile, will be open to the public next year for the first-ever official Beatles fan experience. The site of the iconic 1969 rooftop concert will allow fans access to seven floors of archives and exhibitions, while the ‘Let It Be’ studio will also be recreated.