{"id":469478,"date":"2026-05-27T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469478\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:07:12","slug":"paul-mccartney-on-why-bob-dylan-is-the-one-artist-hes-nervous-to-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469478\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney on why Bob Dylan is the one artist he\u2019s \u201cnervous to approach\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul McCartney<\/a>\u00a0has explained why\u00a0Bob Dylan<\/a>\u00a0is the one artist that he feels \u201cnervous\u201d\u00a0to approach.<\/p>\n

The two music legends have been mutual admirers for over 60 years, having first met when Dylan came to\u00a0The Beatles<\/a>\u2019 hotel suite in New York in August 1964 and\u00a0introduced them to marijuana for the first time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a new interview on BBC Radio 2\u2019s\u00a0Track\u00a0Of\u00a0My Years, McCartney was asked to pick his favourite songs and among them was Dylan\u2019s \u2018Mr. Tambourine Man\u2019.<\/p>\n

When asked about his relationship with the singer-songwriter, he said: \u201cI\u2019m a fan, but y\u2019know, I don\u2019t know him well enough. George [Harrison]<\/a> knew him very well because they were in the Travelling Wilburys together. I\u2019m a little bit nervous to approach him.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney continued: \u201cSome people,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easy, you\u00a0sort of think\u00a0we can chat easily. Last time I saw Bob, it was a few years ago, we\u00a0are\u00a0at Coachella and they did the Desert Trip, so\u00a0it was\u00a0a lot of vintage acts: us,\u00a0the Stones<\/a>, Bob,\u00a0Neil Young<\/a>. And one of our girls said, \u2018Bob Dylan wants to see you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that he was surprised that it would be a private one-on-one meeting. \u201cI came in to see him, and it was like, \u2018Wow\u2019.\u00a0It was just him and me in this massive, big tent backstage. He was very complimentary,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0funny because it was\u00a0kind of a\u00a0little bit embarrassing. He said,\u00a0\u2018You\u2019re a star\u2019.\u00a0I thought, what do you say to\u00a0that.\u00a0\u2018Thank you Bob, I love what you do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another recent interview,\u00a0McCartney said that he had recently been to see a Dylan show and admitted<\/a>: \u201cHonestly, I\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0tell what song he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that he understood if he \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to do \u2018Mr. Tambourine Man\u2019,\u00a0maybe he\u2019s\u00a0fed up with it\u201d,\u00a0but added, \u201cI would like to hear it. And I paid!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dylan has spoken highly of McCartney many times,\u00a0including in 2007 when he said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m in awe of McCartney. He\u2019s about the only one that I am in awe of. He can do it all. And he\u2019s never let up\u2026He\u2019s just so damn effortless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments were reciprocated by McCartney in 2020, when he spoke to BBC Radio 2 and\u00a0said that The Beatles\u2019 more \u201cinterpersonal, reflective\u201d songwriting was influenced by the American folk icon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly got a lot from\u00a0Dylan\u00a0and I know I had one of his first LPs at home before The Beatles,\u201d he told\u00a0Sean Ono Lennon<\/a>. \u201cI used to play that quite a lot so I was steeped in him and I think your dad was too, but that was just one of the influences.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that year that\u00a0he always wished he \u201ccould be a bit more like\u201d Bob Dylan<\/a>, particularly when it comes down to not worrying about what other people think.<\/p>\n

Macca\u2019s new album, \u2018The Boys\u00a0Of\u00a0Dungeon Lane\u2019,\u00a0is set for release on Friday (May 29), and you can\u00a0pre-order it here<\/a>. It includes a duet with former Beatles bandmate\u00a0Ringo Starr<\/a>\u00a0on \u2018Home To Us\u2019<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0 a\u00a0nostalgic reflection on their Liverpool roots, that marks their first ever vocal collaboration. It also features\u00a0Texas\u2019 Sharleen Spiteri<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Pretenders<\/a>\u2019\u00a0Chrissie Hynde<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney\u00a0has explained why\u00a0Bob Dylan\u00a0is the one artist that he feels \u201cnervous\u201d\u00a0to approach. The two music legends have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60,640],"class_list":["post-469478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}