Paul McCartney has no plans to stop performing, even into his 80s.

Paul McCartney is one of the few artists in the world that can keep making headlines six decades after their rise to stardom. Obviously, the Beatle is no longer releasing new music at the same pace he did when he was younger, and even considered quitting after the band split, but every few years fans can count on him releasing a new masterpiece and touring the world after releasing it.

The ‘Got Back’ tour started in early 2022 when live music was slowly coming back, and it was meant to promote McCartney III, the lockdown album he put out in 2020. It was during that tour that Paul McCartney turned 80. Despite his age, he hasn’t slowed down. In fact, recently he announced an extension to his tour. And that’s not the only project the Beatle had this year.

Paul McCartney Has Been Keeping Busy With Other Art Forms

Photography is a form of art that’s as present in the McCartney family as music is. Paul’s wife Linda McCartney was a world-renowned photographer, and their daughter Mary followed in her footsteps.

Although he was never a professional, Paul dabbled in photography as well. And it’s a good thing he did, because recently he found himself reminiscing about the early years of his career, and he realized he had it all documented in his photographs. Photos no one had ever seen, that Paul himself didn’t even remember having.

It was a very fun and emotional journey for Paul to put his book together, not only because of the trip down memory lane but because he found them when he was putting together a special exhibit to honor Linda

“It literally was something I thought that I’d lost,” he said.

“I hadn’t seen them for, I dunno, 60 years. I was just talking to a girl in our office who is a photo archivist. I said: ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve got a feeling I took a lot of pictures in the ’60s, do you have any idea where they might be?’ And she said: ‘Yeah, we’ve got them. They’re in the archive.’ There’s stuff [in the archive] that I literally thought I’d never see again and then suddenly, all of that’s there.”

He spent a long time recovering the material and curating a collection to present to the world. In 2023, he presented the book Eyes of the Storm, featuring 275 photographs he took in the early days of The Beatles that will let the fans see the phenomenon that was Beatlemania through the eyes of one of the protagonists.

Paul McCartney Hosted A Special Photography Show
With the release of his book, Paul McCartney put on a special show, nothing like the kind he’s been doing since the ’60s. People can see his legendary photographs whenever they want if they buy Eyes of the Storm, but there is another way to find them. One where fans get the full experience

The National Portrait Gallery in London set up an exhibit of Sir Paul’s work, running through fall 2023.

Paul McCartney Decided To Get Back To Music (With A Tour)

Sir Paul McCartney announced recently that he would be extending his ‘Got Back’ tour and traveling far away from his native England to play to his fans around the world. This would be considered normal for most musicians, and in a way, it is for Paul.

After all, short of a global disaster as the pandemic was, it’s very difficult to keep him in one place.

But what makes the announcement of this tour such an impressive achievement is the fact that in 2023, the Beatle turned 81. He still puts on two-hour-long concerts and travels around the world, much like when he was a young man, and he will be doing just that again, this time with seven concerts in Australia and another seven in Brazil.

Will Paul McCartney Ever Retire?

When they reach a certain age, most musicians begin thinking of retirement. A lot of them make an event out of it, with farewell tours or concerts, so they can go out with a bang and, most importantly, allow their fans a time and a place to say goodbye.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case with Paul McCartney (thankfully). At this point, it would be more surprising if he did retire.

“I’m like these footballers. People say, ‘When are you gonna retire?’ And they will nearly always say, ‘Well, when I don’t enjoy it, or when the legs give in,’ or something like that. When there’s a factor, that makes them retire. I don’t think any of them want to retire particularly,” he said about it.

“And I was talking to – name-dropping, clunk – Willie Nelson, and I was talking about this whole retiring thing, because he’s older than I am, even. And he says, ‘Retire from what?’ And I think that just says it. Retire from what?”

It’s probably safe to say that McCartney fans don’t have to worry about the icon voluntarily abandoning music, especially with his collaborations with everyone from Kanye West to Rihanna. If anything, they should start saving money for tickets, because it doesn’t seem he’ll get bored with going on tour any time soon.