McCartney amazed at the way fans love him

He's a "lucky boy." He's not an "egotistical fame freak."

Those were a couple of comments that came out in an exclusive phone interview with Paul McCartney the other evening, shortly before he was to hit the stage in Des Moines, Iowa.

I last interviewed McCartney, whose tour comes to KeyArena Thursday, in 1976 at the Kingdome, just before a concert by his band Wings. He was in a chipper mood then, which may have had something to do with the intense aroma of pot in the dressing room [the drummer was toking as I entered]. After a friendly, revealing interview, McCartney asked if I wanted an autograph. Attempting to maintain my journalistic objectivity, I said no.

"Of course you do!" he replied, grabbing my notebook and pen and writing his name. He then drew a little sketch of me, with a round face and curly hair.

I reminded McCartney of that long-ago meeting. We talked about that, his new album, his new children's book, and the emotional reception audiences are giving him on tour: "Bring a hankie," he said.

Here are edited highlights.

Q: We last spoke in 1976 at the Wings' concert in the Kingdome, a significant date in Seattle rock history.

A: Wow! That was really cool, yeah. I still have the award for that [for biggest Kingdome audience].

Q: "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" has been your best-reviewed album in a long time. How do you feel about the reaction to it?

A: Well, I like it, obviously. You know it's approbation of your peers, never a bad thing. Obviously it's better than if they don't like it. We worked hard on it and Nigel [Godrich, the producer] and I thought we'd done something good. But releasing your baby to the universe is always a sort of slightly nerve-racking moment, so it was really good. The people listened to it and liked it....

The feedback, particularly from the public, has been great. On the tour now we're feeling a lot of heat on the new numbers, which is the great thing about being on tour — it builds. And you get more and more conscious each night that they're really, really behind the new numbers.

Q: So we get a sampling of new songs in the show?

A: Yeah. We don't do too many, 'cause we've got a lot of other stuff to deliver as well. We do a nice little cross section.

Q: I understand you fell into a hole in the stage in St. Petersburg [Fla.]. Are you all right?

A: I did and I am. It was more embarrassing, I think, than anything. Got this piano that mysteriously arrives out of the middle of the stage. And because it's a new production and stuff and I'm not used to that, I just straightforward forgot the hole was there, and I was chattin' away to the audience and, um, suddenly there was a hole and I was in it.

I was pretty lucky, actually, that I didn't crack my head on the piano. I was a lucky boy and just sort of landed quite well, even though it was a little bit of a fall. Added a bit of drama to the tour.

Q: Did you go right into "Fixing A Hole"?

A: I should have done, exactly. I went into "Fine Line" — "There is a fine line between recklessness and courage" [the opening lines of the song]. That works, too.

Q: Waiting for your call, I was reading "High in the Clouds" [his new children's book].

A: It's a fun book, isn't it? It's a nice book. I like the idea that even if you're a parent reading it to your kids — I think the kids have to be 7 or over to appreciate it — it should be a good read for the parents as well.

Q: People are going to be clucking over the title, just as they did for the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

A: Yeah, well, let 'em cluck.

Q: I got a laugh when I came across the character Papa Ratsy, a photographer.

A: That is one of my better jokes. We had the character Ratsy always. He was in the story. I suddenly made the connection in a meeting. "Yeah! That's great!" So unfortunately, it got in.

Q: You have reached an exalted status in pop culture. ... It doesn't ever seem to pressure you.

A: Thanks for saying that. I think if you do find a good use for it, then it does take the pressure off. It does actually then make you realize you are doing something meaningful that is working on a few levels. You're entertaining people. Nice, and they like you because of that. But then you're getting into the world political scene in quite a sort of nonpreachy way, just by showing up on a day like Live8 [a concert to raise awareness of poverty]. And you learn certain facts. Instead of being a politician, banging on his agenda, you're able to just put it over a bit more accessibly to ordinary people.

I learned stuff on the Live8 day. I was genuinely moved and surprised to have learned these facts. ... I was being interviewed by the BBC and I mentioned the fact that 50,000 people die each day in Africa. That's pretty shocking. And the interviewer was really cool. He just turned 'round to the crowd [at the London Live8 concert], which was about 200,000. He said, "There you go, there's four days worth." And it was like "Whoa!" That kind of thing means that you're not just there to be an egotistical fame freak, you're actually doing something with it. And it's cool.

There were people like Paul Robeson [the left-leaning, politically active African-American singer, actor, writer and scholar in the 1930s and '40s]. He got done in by McCarthy. Charlie Chaplin had his problems, too [drummed out of America because of supposed leftist leanings].

So there have always been people like that, but nowadays it's a much more prevalent phenomenon, which is a great thing.

Q: You mentioned one of the great artists of all time — Charlie Chaplin. Your song from the new album "Too Much Rain," I understand, was inspired by "Smile."

A: Not many people know Chaplin wrote "Smile." It's one of those things, like, do you know who wrote this? In a quiz, they'll come up with Cole Porter, Irving Berlin. That was Chaplin! The man's a genius. The idea of a comedian writing of smiling through your sorrows is a very moving, powerful idea. And when I was coming to write this song, I was conscious of my wife [activist/model Heather Mills] mainly having had quite a lot of tragic moments. She had a rather tough upbringing and had an accident in which she lost her leg. And we both love the song "Smile," because of what it says, and I was just inspired by that: In one life, too much rain. And hoping to achieve the same kind of effect — when someone is down and out, and does not know where to go, if that song, or "Smile," comes on the radio, it's uplifting.

Q: There is a certain kind of romanticism on the new album, and it seems you're in a special place in your life right now. I feel that the concert is going to reflect that.

A: Well, yeah, I think it does. American audiences are amazing for me. They always were for the Beatles, they always were for Wings. There is a special thing. We always used to say if Elvis ever came to Britain, he was God. And the fact that he was Elvis, and he was American, is a pretty good combination. And I always think, the Beatles, and they're British, goes down pretty well over here. It's a pretty cool combination. We are getting such great warmth and feedback from the audience, it is something to behold. I know it's quite emotional, I must say. Bring your hankie.

I remember going to concerts and paying all my hard-earned money out on what was then an equally expensive ticket — 'cause concerts are expensive these days, and we always pitch ourselves not at the top and not at the bottom, we try to come in somewhere in the middle — but what I hope is that every single member of the audience goes away and says it was worth every cent. I must say we are getting that. It's a great buzz, and I will be doing it in about a half-hour's time.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312, pmacdonald@seattletimes.com