There are very few people on earth who actually understand what it feels like to experience true Beatlemania-level fame. And frontman Paul McCartney thinks Taylor Swift is one of them.
During a May 24 interview with the BBC’s Tracks of My Years show, the 83-year-old legend reflected on Swift’s massive global popularity and admitted he sees quite a few similarities between her career and the cultural frenzy the Beatles sparked back in the 1960s.
“You do see the parallel, you know—the fame and the amount of fame,” McCartney said in a clip shared by BBC Radio 2 on Instagram. When asked if he’d offer Swift any advice about navigating stardom, the music icon responded, “I don’t think she needs any advice, to tell you the truth.”
But if she did ever ask him, McCartney would, of course, oblige. “If she asked for it, I definitely would,” he explained. “I’m like the older brother to that generation, or more of like that grandad, actually.”
The musician also spoke warmly about several younger pop stars he met through a gathering hosted by his wife, Nancy Shevell, and his daughter, Stella McCartney, both of whom are, he says, “very good at getting cool people to a party.”
McCartney said he crossed paths with artists including Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter at that party, adding, “They’re really cool people. They’re very good.”
But is he a fan? “I like their voices,” he said. “If they need any advice, yeah, I would be happy to give it, but I don’t think they do.”
Many fans of McCartney praised the singer for that humble response.
“I love that Sir Paul refused to mansplain superstardom to Taylor Swift,” one fan wrote on a clip of the interview.
“A gracious answer from Paul, and, after everything he’s experienced, that humility is perhaps the best advice of all,” another said.
A third replied, “What a solid excellent answer. IF they ask and they don’t need it. Be like Sir Paul.”
The interview comes just days after McCartney helped close out the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with an emotional performance of the Beatles’ hit “Hello, Goodbye” inside the historic Ed Sullivan Theater. That theater is notably the same venue where Beatlemania famously exploded in America more than 60 years ago.
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