Paul McCartney Recalls His Fear Of Almost Killing A Woman In ‘Live And Let Die’ Performance

Paul McCartney recently recounted a nerve-wracking moment during his performance of “Live And Let Die.” The music legend shared this story on his podcast, A Life In Lyrics. He described how, as he incorporated more elaborate elements into his shows, he became concerned about the effects on the audience, particularly one elderly fan.

McCartney explained that while performing the explosive 1973 James Bond theme, he started using pyrotechnics. However, during one show, he spotted a 90-year-old woman in the front row just as the explosions were set to go off. He feared for her safety, thinking, “Oh, no, we might harm her.”

Despite his worry, he couldn’t interrupt the performance, so he looked away as the explosions happened. To his relief, when he checked back, the woman was enjoying the show.

“Live And Let Die” was created for the eighth 007 movie and marked Sir Roger Moore’s debut as James Bond.

In the same podcast, McCartney shared his initial reaction when asked to write a Bond song. He considered:

“It was always a sneaky ambition to write a Bond song because, in some ways, I like to see myself, one portion of myself, as a jobbing writer. You require a song for the queen’s wedding, I’m your man.
“The equivalent of that for a lot of people is the Bond song. [If] you’ve written a Bond song, it’s a bit of an accolade.
“In this case, our record guy, who was handling The Beatles’ Apple Records, knew somebody connected with the Bond franchise. One day we were just chatting and he said, ‘You don’t have interest in doing a Bond film, do you?’”

He recalled:

“‘Yeah, I’d probably be interested, [I] didn’t want to look too enthusiastic. ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll do it.’”

From Bond Songs to the Beatles’ Final Song

In the same podcast, McCartney shared his initial reaction when asked to write a Bond song. He considered it an honor and a covert aspiration of his to write one, akin to being a go-to songwriter for significant events like the queen’s wedding.

In addition to this story, McCartney also recently released what he referred to as the “final” song from The Beatles’ “Now And Then.” This project, a collaboration with Ringo Starr, involved salvaging a demo recording by John Lennon with the aid of AI technology. Furthermore, a music video directed by Peter Jackson featured unseen footage of the band.

McCartney is currently touring Australia and surprised fans by performing “She’s A Woman” for the first time in almost twenty years.