November 29, 2025

He doesn’t HAVE to do this anymore…

So why does he?…

Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 was destined to be a memorable day for me from the start.  I had driven to Vermont the afternoon before and now was joining my two brothers for a trip to Montreal to see Paul McCartney.  Though we’d all seen him before, this trip and upcoming concert felt especially auspicious.

After all - how many more opportunities for such a get-together might we possibly expect?

After a quick check-in at the downtown hotel, a festive lunch at the nearby restaurant and a brisk walk through frigid-but-beautiful St. Catherine Street, there we were - seated in the second row of the upper middle section, poised for what was promised to be a nearly three-hour show.

Sure, our expectations were low, after seeing recent clips clearly reflecting how his voice is no longer nearly the same.  But seeing someone live is different; the echo, reverb and sheer volume seems to mask vocal inconsistencies as they blend in seamlessly with the great instrumentation taking place at the same time.

In other words…

He was GREAT!!!

The music… The pacing… The ENERGY!!!  His light show was miles superior than what I’d seen before and the sound system felt exactly right.  For me, the highlight was when he followed his solo John Lennon tribute “Here Today” with the full band joining him on THE RECENT NUMBER ONE HIT (!!!) “Now and Then”.  The cleverly-selected never-seen-before videos of John, Paul, George and Ringo larking about in the background were guaranteed to bring tears to the eyes.  The whole thing was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…

He’s now 83 years old and only two more shows remained on this, his “Got Back” tour.  But he closed with the words “See you next time!!”

Incredible.  My brothers and I compared notes over breakfast and the drive home the next morning.  And we kept returning to the same area of conversation.  While we felt so fortunate to witness something like this so late in his career, why does this man still feel the need to get up there and perform in such an all-in manner?  Is it simply ego?  He certainly doesn’t need the money - although his band and everyone involved likely are grateful for the extra paydays granted.  But Paul is probably more aware than anyone else about the current state of his voice.  Why risk the potential embarrassment?

Well, ultimately we settled on what might have been the obvious answer from the start.  This is a man simply at peace knowing who he is and what he does.  And continuing to enjoy pure love from massive crowds must be such an overwhelmingly positive experience, the likes of which most of us will never be able to fathom.  This is a musician who simply loves playing the music he helped create decades earlier.  There’s no question his motivations are pure.

Of course, there are elements any one of us can relate to.  For me, why do I still bother attempting to write new songs or spend (waste?) time composing blogs and monthly emails that are read only by a select few?  Especially when the likelihood of a financial windfall from works of creativity seem to have fallen off the cliffs years ago?

Well - this is who I am and what I do.  Logic and common sense have their time and space, but more often than not, we’re at our best when thinking and acting outside the box.

Ultimately, we are who we are.

And I’m grateful to still be a person who can be amazed at watching another person/group get up their and do his/their thing.  To be able to have spent part of the week before Thanksgiving making this journey with my two brothers is a treasure I wasn’t taking for granted either, even as it was happening.  Whether it be a simple sunset or rainbow or a convoluted set of occurrences, sometimes the universe throws out random moments and events that deserve to be noticed.  As humans, we owe it to ourselves to take a second to sit back and be appreciative.

Thanks, Paul!

See you next time!!