Paul McCartney on vegetarianism and immortality

But for me that was coupled with, I was not looking forward to releasing the record, the physical release of it, because it can be very boring when we just go through the motions. So I was looking for things that could be exciting and David happened to know the guy who had just been appointed one of the heads of music at Starbucks. He was an old friend of David’s and David said, “he’s a fan of yours… and what’s more, he’s a bass player…” And I thought “whew! That just about sews it up!”

So I met him. He was called Alan Mintz and he was very exciting. He just started saying “we could do this, and what about that…” so it actually just interested me, because what are we trying to do anyway? To reach people, and I don’t actually mind whether it happens through the Internet, through record stores or supermarkets or through a coffee chain. It doesn’t much matter to me, you know? As long as there is some excitement.

So I eventually met them. I met Howard Schultz and the Starbucks team, and they were just really excited. Excite-ted. They all came into this meeting, about six of them, down in a basement studio in New York where we were finishing up Memory Almost Full and they all walked in carrying Starbucks. It was hilarious. I said “Guys. Next time I come to a meeting with you I’m going to get me and all my guys come walking in with a copy of my album under our arms.” They just displayed this passion and an interest that I hadn’t seen in awhile.

And your catalog was released recently on iTunes.

Right. It’s the same thing when I talked with Steve Jobs about iTunes and the whole Apple thing. It wasn’t just that it was a great idea, from a business standpoint. It was more than that. It was a great thing to be doing. It was an exciting way to do things.

You’ve been on a great run, with Chaos and Creation and Ecce Cor Meum, but some critics still hold you accountable for songs like ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and a string of lackluster albums from the eighties. A common refrain is, “How could the guy who wrote ‘Hey Jude’ write ‘Spies Like Us’?”

Well, you know, I’m multi-talented, Brent (laughs). No seriously… not to be frivolous.

Yeah, but some of your best songs seem to come from a really personal place…

Like what?

Oh, like “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Love in Song,” “Here Today…”

Yeah… I think it’s not just one side of my character that interests me. I’m not always in that kind of mood. You know, it can be a bright summer’s day and I can just be in a happy-go-lucky mood and want to write something to dance to, and it’s not as easy to write something like “Hey Today,” to dance to. Hey… a little coincidence. I’m actually upstairs in my mill here where I wrote that song, many, many years ago. In sort of the exact space. Funny you should mention that.

Anyway… those songs, you’ve got to be in that mood, and you’ve got to want to write like that. So I’ve either got a choice to say, "Ok, you’re in a sort of fun-loving mood, don’t write something. Just go and have a swim or something," or "Hey, write something and publish it and be damned. It doesn’t matter." So that’s me.

It has led to the criticism that some of my songs will be more meaningful than others. And you know, I don’t actually see that as a bad thing. And it doesn’t apply to everyone. There are some people around whom I’ll go, "Oh, God. I’m actually a bit ashamed about that song…’ I remember talking to a producer friend of mine about (switches to the voice of Spinal Tap’s Derrick Smalls) “Bip. Bop.”