Paul McCartney Dismisses Rolling Stones As 'Blues Cover Band'

“I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs,” the former Beatle told The New Yorker about the group's top musical rivals.
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Mick Jagger may not get much satisfaction at this news: Former Beatle Paul McCartney says the Rolling Stones are little more than a “blues cover band.”

McCartney threw shade at the Beatles’ biggest rivals in a profile for The New Yorker, though he almost seemed to feel guilty about it.

Almost.

“I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are,” he said. “I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”

McCartney dismissed the Stones similarly in April 2020, Mediaite notes, when the “Cute Beatle” told Howard Stern that every song the Stones wrote is rooted in blues.

“We had a little more influences,” McCartney said by way of comparison. “There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”

Jagger responded to McCartney’s mild mockery by pointing out that “the real big difference between these two bands” is that one “is unbelievably luckily still playing in stadiums and then the other band doesn’t exist,” according to Metro.

McCartney, 79, seems very interested in getting out what he considers to be his side of the story in the Beatles saga.

Recently, he told the BBC that, contrary to previous reports, he wasn’t the person who broke up that Beatles: That dubious honor, he insisted, goes to his songwriting partner John Lennon.

Before You Go

Paul marries Nancy Shevell

Photos of Paul McCartney

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