Paul McCartney has teased a collaborative duet with Prince, reworking the late artist’s cover of The Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road.”
McCartney discussed the currently-unreleased rendition in a new interview with BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years program, where he went through 10 songs from his lifetime that made an impact on him, spanning his early days in Liverpool through The Beatles, Wings, and his new solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
“I was with some guy a couple of years ago, so it was after Prince had died,” McCartney recalled. “And this guy said, ‘Have you heard Prince do ‘Long and Winding Road?’ I said, ‘Well, no. That’s one of my songs.’ I said, ‘I don’t think he ever did it.’ He said, ‘Well, he did. He did it in rehearsal. He was rehearsing it for something.’”
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“He said, ‘I’ll send it to you if you want.’ This guy, I think he was Prince’s photographer, his personal guy. So, he sent it to me and it’s really great. And so I’m going to sort of ask [the estate] … because I could make it into something really good… It’s kind of rocky. He plays some really good guitar on it. He was a special guy.”
What McCartney didn’t realize was that Prince had performed his cover of “The Long and Winding Road,” busting out the rendition multiple times during his 2007 Las Vegas residency; the recording that Prince’s photographer sent to McCartney presumably came from these shows. It’s not the only time Prince covered a Beatles standard in a live setting, famously reinterpreting the George Harrison cut “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Rock Hall Induction Ceremony.
McCartney continued, praising the late icon, selecting “Kiss” as his essential Prince track, and deeming him “a wizard.” McCartney also discussed other songs from the last 70 years that made an impact on him, including Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly & the Crickets, Elvis, The Kinks, The Human League, Bob Dylan, and The Beach Boys.
He surveyed the modern songwriting landscape, too, touching on the success of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and Sabrina Carpenter: “I’ve met a few of these girls and admired what they’re doing. I think they’re good singers… They’re really cool people. They’re very good,” he said. McCartney spotlighted Taylor Swift, saying that she’s “clever” and doesn’t need any of his advice, and mentioned a party that his wife and daughter had where all four women were in attendance. Watch the full clip of Paul McCartney on The Tracks of My Years below.
McCartney will reveal The Boys of Dungeon Lane, his 20th solo album, on Friday, May 29th. He recently appeared on final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and as the musical guest on the season finale of Saturday Night Live.
As for Prince, a celebration of life commemorating the 10th anniversary of his passing will take place on June 3rd-7th in Minneapolis. Performers include Chaka Khan, Morris Day, Miguel, Tevin Campbell, Bilal, members of Prince’s band The Revolution, and more.