Paul McCartney opens up about “dodgy” hearing issues
Paul McCartney has opened up about his hearing issues, admitting that it “can be dodgy”.
The legendary musician, who will turn 84 later this month, made the comments at an in-conversation event at the Roundhouse in London with comedian Rob Brydon following the release of his new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
At the event, which took place on June 10th, McCartney honestly shared with Brydon (via The Sun), “My hearing can be dodgy. It’s pretty good but sometimes, you know, what happens is you miss little bits of words so it can get weird.”
He then shared an example of his hearing making a conversation with his wife, Nancy Shevell, confusing, recalling, “I was talking to Nancy one time and it turns out she was talking about food or something but I misheard it and I said, ‘What’s Sid Bernstein got to do with it?’ Anyway, she wasn’t talking about Sid Bernstein.”
On a poignant note, McCartney also explained how ageing has re-evaluated his position on older people, admitting of his younger days, “You know, when we were kids, you just look at a lot of old people and, in truth, you think they’re a bit thick. You do really.”
However, now he’s in his 80s, McCartney has a different perspective, conceding, “What happens is also, actually, as your hearing goes, you realise now that older people just couldn’t hear the question.”
Reflecting further on growing old, Macca added of The Beatles’ classic ‘When I’m 64’, which he began writing as a teenager, “When I wrote ‘When I’m 64‘, I was thinking, ‘64? Oh, my God, that’s so old.’ And then I go, oh, I’m 64. Oh, now I’m 74 and now I’m going to be 84.”
While he’s on the brink of turning 84 and may be starting to lose his hearing, McCartney isn’t prepared to slow down just yet, having recently secured his 24th number one album in the UK with The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
In a four-star review of McCartney’s new album, Far Out observed, “On one hand, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a good but not great collection of songs, but on the other, also perhaps the best album ever recorded by an 83-year-old?”
The review adds, “I’ve always imagined that McCartney must find it odd to be asked every day about things he did 60 years ago, considering how much he’s done since. But as it turns out, what he really wants to talk about was stuff that he did 70 years ago.”
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