Paul McCartney appeared on NBC's Today Show and spoke with Al Roker about his upcoming children's book,Hey Grandude!, as well as his long and storied career. The animated book -- written by McCartney with illustrations by Kathryn Durst-- is due out on September 5th via Random House Books for Young Readers.
Among other things, McCartney revealed that due to the sheer number of songs he's written -- the majority of which he hasn't performed in decades, if at all -- he needs to re-learn his old songs before each tour: "I have to re-learn everything I've ever written an awful lot. So, you can't retain them all. We go into rehearsal and I learn them, y'know? 'Oh yeah -- that's how it goes' (laughs).(Al Roker):Well, sometimes when you're re-learning them, do you kind of look and go, 'Y'know, this is pretty good'?(McCartney):Ido. I really do. Y'know, that's one of the joys of doing some of the old songs, I say, 'Oh,that's clever. I wouldn't have done that.'"