Paul McCartney Explains Why He Opts for Autographs Over Fan Selfies

Paul McCartney has explained his reason for not taking selfies with fans: he doesn’t want to feel like a monkey.

On The Rest is Entertainment podcast, McCartney talked about how The Beatles were famous and “loved it.” But time has changed his relationship to fame, and it’s something “you learn to deal with.”

One way he deals with it is having a policy against selfies with fans.

“As time’s gone by, things have changed,” he said, noting everyone having phones with cameras has altered how he deals with fame. “So if I meet someone, they’re reaching for their phone, and I say, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t do pictures,’ and that is radical these days.”

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“I don’t want to” take selfies, he said, recalling a time he talked about the topic with Oprah Winfrey. “It’s as simple as that.”

McCartney elaborated, “I don’t like to do it because something important to me . . . would be lost,” McCartney said, adding a sense of normalcy gets taken away. “The minute I start thinking I’m something above myself, I won’t like me. It’s very important for me to just be me.”

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Then he talked about the monkey. When fans are upset he won’t pose for a photo and ask why, he tells a story.

“I go into this long explanation about how down on the south coast of France in Saint-Tropez there’s a man on the beachfront who has a monkey, and you pay to have your photo taken with the monkey,” he said. “I really do not want to feel like that monkey.

“And when I take a picture with someone, I do feel like him. I’m not me anymore. I’m suddenly something else.”

Speaking of things McCartney talked about on The Rest is Entertainment podcast, he also said when he went to a Bob Dylan show he couldn’t tell what songs the legendary songwriter was playing. McCartney also said he believes playing “Hey Jude” unites fans in “Trump’s America.”

McCartney’s new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes out on May 29th. He released the single, “Home to Us,” a duet with Ringo Starr.

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_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/05/paul-mccartney-on-fan-selfies/)._