Adam Levine reveals Paul McCartney’s brutal review of his Beatles cover: “We did it better”
Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has revealed that Paul McCartney wasn’t particularly impressed with his rendition of two of The Beatles’ most famous songs during a tribute concert more than a decade ago.
In 2014, the Grammys held a special event to honour the work of the Fab Four, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles which was full of musical icons honouring the legendary group.
They managed to get a formidable line-up together to cover some of the band’s greatest hits, including Stevie Wonder offering his rendition of ‘We Can Work It Out,’ Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, and Gary Clark Jr doing their version of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, and McCartney and Ringo Starr putting everyone in their place by playing a handful of their own songs. They also got Maroon 5 to perform.
In a new interview with Howard Stern, Levine revealed that after he performed ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Ticket to Ride,’ he met McCartney backstage and suffered the Beatle’s deadpan sense of humour. “Paul took me in close and said, ‘You know, we did it better,’” Levine recalled, adding, “I’ve been scared a handful of fucking times, and that was definitely one of them.”
Ever the gent, McCartney later made absolutely sure that there were no hard feelings. At a party a few months afterwards, he went up to Levine and said something along the lines of, “Hey man, I just wanted to let you know if that bothered you, I’ve been thinking about this, I didn’t want to insult you or anything.”
Levine was understandably touched by the gesture. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re good, dude.’” he recalled. “‘You’re Paul fucking McCartney.’”
Nevertheless, Maroon 5 probably aren’t rushing to do another Beatles cover, though, especially not in front of McCartney.
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