Paul McCartney: The Beatles Were "The Greatest Band Ever"

For decades, Sir Paul McCartney resisted calling The Beatles the greatest band of all time, routinely pointing instead to The Everly Brothers as the defining musical influence on himself and John Lennon. But during a recent TikTok livestream Q&A with fans, the former Beatle appeared to finally embrace his own group’s colossal legacy head-on.

“I think The Beatles were the greatest band ever,” McCartney said while reflecting on the band’s enduring popularity across generations (via The Telegraph ) . “I’m a fan.”

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The comments arrived as the 83-year-old icon looked back on the longevity of a band that expected its career to last only a handful of years. Speaking candidly during the livestream, McCartney marveled at how The Beatles’ music continues to resonate with younger listeners nearly six decades after Beatlemania first swept the globe.

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“When we started out, we were just kids, and rock ‘n’ roll was just really coming in, and we thought, ‘If we’re lucky, we’ve got a couple of years,’” McCartney said. “That’s how long people normally lasted.”

He continued: “We expected maybe five years max, and then that became 10, and we were kind of still going, and the scene’s still there. Then it became 20, then 30, and now it’s right up there. It’s great; it is a lovely feeling.”

McCartney also reflected on the unique validation that comes from hearing younger generations connect with The Beatles’ catalog decades after its release.

“People will come to me and say, ‘My kids love your music,’” he shared. “And that’s something, you know, because you can’t indoctrinate kids. They just either like it or they don’t.”

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Though McCartney now appears comfortable placing The Beatles atop the pantheon of pop music, he has long spoken about The Everly Brothers’ influence on the band’s early songwriting and vocal arrangements. In his 2021 memoir The Lyrics , he described the duo as the single biggest inspiration for both himself and Lennon.

“The biggest influence on John and me was the Everly Brothers,” he wrote. “To this day, I just think they’re the greatest. And they were different.”

Elsewhere during the livestream, McCartney reflected on the evolution of music technology since The Beatles’ inception from vinyl records and cassette tapes to streaming platforms and digital libraries.

“We started off on a 45 record, and then LPs, vinyl albums, and went through cassettes, CDs, and then finally here we are with streaming,” McCartney said. “To me, it’s OK, because it’s another way of getting your music out… I don’t care how people choose to access it, as long as they do access it… that’s all I’m interested in.”

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McCartney’s latest release The Boys of Dungeon Lane , is ready to be accessed and will drop on May 29th, 2026. The project marks McCartney’s 18th solo album, featuring 14 tracks produced with Andrew Watt, including his first-ever duet with Ringo Starr titled “Home to Us.”

Earlier this month on his promotional tour, McCartney spoke about music’s ability to transcend political division during an appearance on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, where he pointed to live performances of “Hey Jude” as proof that communal experiences can dissolve the cultural tensions dominating modern American life. Read more about those comments here .

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_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/05/paul-mccartney-beatles-greatest-band-ever/)._