I've met Paul McCartney once and figured I'd used up my quota of luck. Then it happened again. Now three times? At that point you stop believing in coincidence.
I was a Beatles fan growing up, then joined the Wings Fun Club. But this time felt different. Business, though the pleasure part stayed intact.
His London office. He shakes my hand and in that Liverpool accent says, "Ere, you've got a good grip on yer." One of the nation's richest men, and he makes you feel like he actually wants to know YOU.
Gold discs cover the walls. Paul's halfway through a new album in LA and talking about touring again. The Beatles Number One album just dominated charts worldwide, 30 years after the band split, with 27 number ones on it.
"I played it in the car the other day," Paul tells me, "and I thought to myself 'How did we do that?' I was surprised but chuffed with the success."
The Beatles Anthology book, videos, and album collection finally set the record straight. "We called it the 'Beatle bible,'" Paul explains. "There were people who wrote books about us who'd never even met us. The Anthology is The Beatles by The Beatles."
He remembers putting the pieces together, like the night they met Elvis. "I recalled Elvis coming to the door. Ringo said we all went into this room."
Wings: From Van Tours to Stadium Breaks
Wingspan is why we're meeting up. In the forthcoming film and soundtrack album, Paul reveals how as Wings Commander he piloted his new band from nowhere to mega success. They started in a van playing universities for 50p admission.
Paul turns 59 on June 18. Wingspan releases May 7 with the soundtrack album priced like a single. He's in New York with girlfriend Heather Mills, who's been accompanying him everywhere. He's been reading from his Blackbird Singing book and speaking out against landmines.
The film screens May 11 in the US on a US network and May 19 on Channel 4 here at 10pm. Three years in the making, it started when Paul and Linda looked at home movies and photographs. Alistair, husband of Mary McCartney, assembled the film lovingly and added never-before-seen footage of the band on stage.
The documentary reveals how Paul and Linda raised a young family while fronting a new band against the massive weight of The Beatles legacy, a pot bust in Japan, and two key releases banned by the BBC. It was the hardest job in rock and roll. In nine years, Wings shifted 17 million singles, scored five USA number one albums, and pulled off a US stadium tour that broke the Beatles attendance record at Shea Stadium.
Paul says the Wingspan archive finally shows how crucial Linda McCartney was to Wings through all its line-up changes.
"When The Beatles finished it was such a shock to me and my system," he tells me. "Besides being out of work, I'd lost one of the greatest jobs in the world. Once I got over that shock I thought, 'What am I going to do now. I'm not in The Beatles anymore. Do I even continue in music, go solo, get a band?'
"We did great with Wings. We did it big and created a few records, both musical and attendance-wise. Wings really allowed me to continue doing music after The Beatles. That was the main thing for me. I couldn't stop making music if you paid me, so there had to be a way to keep doing it. I needed that. So there had to be a band, and it was called Wings. That's the story in the film, and it's a very human story.
"Wings set out to prove we could do it. There was so much bitterness after The Beatles split that there was an element of 'We'll show you.'"
The Japan Bust and What Came After
Paul's a superstar twice over. When The Beatles split in April 1970, he had to start from scratch. Now a new Channel 4 documentary called Wingspan details the soaring success of Paul, Linda, and the shifting line-ups that made Wings one of the supergroups of the '70s. In this part of our three-part interview, Paul talks about life after The Beatles, how Stella inspired the Wings name, the band's chart dominance across the world, and the drugs bust in Japan that brought them down to earth.
His London office is lined with Ivor Novello Awards, wall-to-wall gold discs, and Moptop memorabilia including an American car licence plate that just says "AY JUDE." Photos of The Fab Four line the walls alongside a shot of Paul walking across Abbey Road with his beloved dog Martha.
He sings an impromptu verse of "Fly Me To The Moon" before we talk (I miss the chance to tape it). Dressed in t-shirt, slacks, and trainers, he sips mineral water and laughs constantly. Here's Macca the polymath: singer, songwriter, poet, painter, Beatle, Wing Commander.
He's overseeing Wingspan for Channel 4 to tie in with the double-album release next month. His poetry book Blackbird Singing is on the bestseller list. He's halfway through recording a new album in LA and has an art exhibition coming this autumn in Liverpool. He's in love with girlfriend Heather Mills. Paul looks fit and happy. Clearly a chilled-out man.
Playing The Cavern in 1999 whetted his performing appetite. He'd love to tour again. Wingspan, like The Beatles Anthology, was another chance to set the record straight. After all, he WAS there.
In his soft Scouse accent, the self-styled "Scruff from Speke" explains how it happened: "Linda and I were looking at snapshots for an anniversary. I said to her 'When do we intend to look at all this stuff?' We had Polaroids, home movies, the things people gather and gather but never get round to watching.
"I didn't know Linda had asked Alistair, our daughter Mary's husband, to put together an 'Anniversary Tape' of home movies of the kids growing up. He put music on it. Alistair did a really tasty job. After we watched it and cried a bit, we thought it would make a great piece for telly.
"Wingspan began three years ago. It tells how Paul dared to follow The Beatles, how he was banned..."