Paul McCartney says he’s “kind of the opposite” of The Rolling Stones
In 2026, two of the most anticipated albums to arrive in the coming months are from Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones.
The two acts, whose stories famously go back towards the 1960s when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were fighting it out in the charts, even both used Andrew Watt as their producer for the two albums.
However, according to McCartney, just because they share the same producer for their new projects, that doesn’t mean they went around creating the albums similarly.
In a new interview with MOJO, McCartney highlighted the main difference between him as a solo artist and The Rolling Stones, who have a distinct sound already set in stone, stating, “If you’re working with the Stones, they’ve got the Stones sound. It’s kind of the opposite with me – we’re trying not to do that.”
Macca added of his creative vision for The Boys of Dungeon Lane, “The way we approached this album was: We’ve done that before. Let’s do it different.”
Notably, McCartney also contributes to The Rolling Stones’ new album, Foreign Tongues, which is taken from sessions he previously made with them for their 2023 record, Hackney Diamonds, with Watt instrumental in bringing them together.
McCartney first met Watt in 2021, with the duo working on the new album throughout the last five years in London and Sussex.
In the new interview, McCartney shared his first impression of Watt, admitting, “I came away from the first session thinking, Well, I like him, but he’s a bit pushy.”
However, he did concede, “But pushy’s not a bad thing in a producer. It’s just enthusiasm from someone who wants to keep making this record. It’s infectious.”
Today (May 8th), McCartney has released the second single from The Boys of Dungeon Lane in the form of ‘Home to Us’, which marks his first-ever duet with Ringo Starr.
‘Home to Us’ finds Starr and McCartney swapping lines throughout the track, while reminiscing fondly about their early days in Liverpool.
Charming lyrics in ‘Home to Us’ include, “My mum was in the kitchen washing dishes in the sink, And then she burnt the toast, The kids are in the alley playing ball until the sun goes down, But that was my hometown, And it was home to us.”
They also sing, “The world around us wasn’t safe, the place was falling down, But that was my hometown, And it was all I knew, ‘Cause it was home to us.”
Listen to the track below.
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