Sir Paul McCartney has admitted he doesn’t understand how influencers become “incredibly famous”.
Sir Paul McCartney is baffled by influencer culture where “people who don’t seem to be particularly talented are incredibly famous”.
The Beatles legend, 83, has seen the way fame and celebrity culture has changed over the last six decades, and he can’t get his head round the current generation.
Asked what baffles him most in the modern world on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, he told hosts Richard Osman and Marina Hyde: “I think a lot of this influencer stuff – I just don’t really get it, because I’m not that generation.
“But I see it, you can’t help it. My wife will be looking at Instagram and showing me something, and then one of those will come on.
“I think it’s funny – and I suppose it always happened – but people who don’t seem to be particularly talented are incredibly famous. Billions of hits and views.”
The Hey Jude hitmaker joked that he needed to “be careful” about voicing his opinions on the matter.
He quipped: “You’ve got to be careful about talking about that, because it makes you sound very old-fashioned. Which I am.”
Sir Paul insisted that the way stars react to fame has also changed.
He pondered: “I think the big difference is in yourself. When you’re first famous, you love it – because it’s what you were trying to achieve.
“So something goes well, people in the street recognise you, and you love it. There was none of this, ‘Oh, people are bothering me’ – that’s a modern affliction. We loved it. And you learn to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, Sir Paul opened up on his decision to decline photos with fans who approach him in public.
He explained: “I say I don’t like to do it because something important to me, something related to your question about innocence and staying normal, would be lost. The minute I start thinking I’m something above myself, I won’t like me.
“It’s very important for me to just be me. So I say to people: I don’t want to do photos. And they say: ‘Why?’ And I say: ‘I’ll tell you what…’
“And I go into this long explanation about how, down on the south coast of France in Saint-Tropez, there’s a man on the beachfront who has a monkey, and you pay to have your photo taken with the monkey.
“I really do not want to feel like that monkey. And when I take a picture with someone, I do feel like him. I’m not me anymore – I’m suddenly something else.”
Sir Paul McCartney baffled by influencer culture with ‘people who don’t seem particularly talented’
