Paul McCartney complained that performers are expected to put on hours-long shows due to the influence of Bruce Springsteen.
The former Beatles band member explained that before “The Boss” came along, crowds were fine with major musical acts appearing for much shorter periods.
“These days it’s pretty much the main act and there might be a warm up act,” McCartney told late night host Conan O’Brien during an interview for his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast. The British star said back when the Beatles were popular, bands never played for that long because one show featured so many other major acts.
“Now, people do three, four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen. I’ve told him so. I’ve said, ‘It’s your fault,’” the 81-year-old songwriter continued. “You can’t now do an hour. We used to do a half hour. That was like the Beatles’ thing. Half an hour, and we got paid for it.”
“He ruined it for everyone,” O’Brien agreed.
McCartney went on to say that back in those days, playing for 30 minutes was considered extensive.
He said promoters would ask, “‘How long can you do? Four minutes? Can you do four minutes?’ And the guy would say, ‘Yeah,’ so they would do four. So, we thought, ‘Half an hour, that’s like epic.’”
“But that was it,” McCartney told O’Brien. “Big Beatles show. We were on and off like that. It didn’t seem strange.”
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Springsteen previously told O’Brien he accidentally set the precedent of playing for a long time and felt he had to keep it up.
The “Born in the USA” composer said he “screwed the whole thing up by playing too f***ing long” during a 2020 interview with O’Brien, saying he was now forced to keep it up because fans expect it. “Now I have to do it,” he said.
McCartney also said he considered quitting the music business after the Beatles broke up in 1970.
“The main question I had was whether to keep going after the Beatles because it was a hard act — some might say, an impossible act — to follow,” the musician said in his newsletter. “There’s a couple of times in life when you are forced into taking a risk. After the Beatles, this was my situation: ‘Do I keep going with music, or not?’” he said. “The risk paid off.”