Paul McCartney Fondly Recalls Working With Kanye West, Discusses New Album Details

Paul McCartney, in a rare interview opportunity, spoke to DIY this week regarding the nature of his forthcoming Egypt Station album, as well as his willingness to work with the younger generation.

The legendary Beatles member covered quite a lot of topics when he spoke to the British publication, including his prior work with Kanye West and Rihanna on “FourFiveSeconds” in 2015.

When he was asked how the meeting between the two very different artists came about, the Beatles bassist stated, “I don’t actually plan too much of this stuff, but for instance with Kanye, my manager just rang me up and said, ‘Kanye’s interested in working with you.’ So what would you do? I went, OK great! I didn’t know what we were gonna do or how it was gonna work, so I just took my guitar along and let him lead the dance.”

McCartney explained that working in the studio with the “Yikes” rapper was an experience unlike any other, in the way that “with him, it was much more made up as we went along,” he said. “So much so that I didn’t even realize that I was making songs.”

“I was tootling around on guitar, and Kanye spent a lot of time just looking at pictures of Kim [Kardashian] on his computer. I’m thinking, are we ever gonna get around to writing?! But it turns out he was writing. That’s his muse.”

Beyond this, McCartney also showed that he was, indeed, a fan of West’s work, saying, “I was a big fan of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. That was the record of his that I really envied. I thought, oh he’s done some good stuff.”

“Watch The Throne with Jay-Z [too]. I like that. It’s not like I’m a big hip-hop fan, but I went to see Kanye and Jay-Z and really came away thinking it was like urban poetry. I was very impressed. So when the word came that he wanted to work with me, I was flattered.”

McCartney’s new album Egypt Station is set to release on September 7 with respected producer Greg Kurstin who has worked with the likes of Adele and Sia handling the project, aside from a surprise one-song production role taken by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.

You can stream both of McCartney’s newest songs from his forthcoming album below.