Paul McCartney poses with his wife, Linda, and their daughters at Heathrow Airport in London, England

Music

Paul McCartney Explains What It Was Like to Bring His Children on Tour: ‘They Were Hippy Commune Kids’

Singer Paul McCartney shares what it was like touring with his children and how his children benefited from the experienc

by Ross Tanenbaum

Published on November 2, 2022

2 min read

Paul McCartney has a large family consisting of five kids

Paul McCartney, Linda and their daughters, Stella, Mary, and Heather | Daily Express/Getty Images

While The Beatles were his musical family, Paul McCartney has a large family outside of music with five kids. He raised four of his children — Heather (legally adopted by McCartney), Mary, Stella, and James — with his wife, Linda, who he remained with until her death from breast cancer in 1998.

In 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills, and the two welcomed their child, Beatrice Milly, in 2003. Heather and Paul separated in 2006 and divorced in 2008. McCartney is currently married to Nancy Shevell, who he met in 2007.

McCartney says touring with his kids was ‘interesting’ and ‘wacky’

In an interview for his website, Paulmccartney.com, the “Live and Let Die” singer explained what it was like to tour with his kids. McCartney called it “interesting” and “wacky” but was happy he decided to bring his family with him. He believed it was a helpful experience for his kids as traveling to various locations became a part of their education.

“Our main reason was, we worried about leaving the kids at home and then getting a nanny or somebody ringing up saying ‘oh they’ve gone into hospital’ or ‘they’re very ill’, and we’d be far away in Australia or something. When we decided to bring them along we tried to be very careful about the sensible stuff like their education. We did things like going to their school and asking the teachers what the class are they going to be doing while we’re away, and then we had a tutor that came with us – the kids hated him! They did not like being told in the afternoon that it was ‘school time!’. They’d protest: ‘No, we wanna go to the beach!’.”

“But it was great – it was lovely having with us. They joke about it now, saying they were hippy commune kids! But it was great for us, and I think it was great for them. It meant that we didn’t have to worry about them, because they were right there with us. And we figured if you want to know geography, actually going to all these places was helpful – it was part of their education. So yeah, it was interesting!”

McCartney used touring locations as inspiration for songwriting

Traveling around the world was not only helpful for McCartney’s kids, but it helped him with his music. The former Beatle shared he was often inspired by the places he visited, and it would help with his songwriting process.

“I suppose the most specific and obvious location that inspired me was the Mull of Kintyre, which is a very beautiful part of the world,” McCartney told his website. “It inspired me to write a Scottish song for the first time in my life. Other locations have inspired me in more subtle ways, of course, but that’s the first one I remember wanting to reference in a song title.”

New locations would also inspire McCartney to experiment with writing songs in different languages. He has written some French into his music and tried working with Spanish.