Paul McCartney says people think Kanye West ‘discovered’ him

Paul McCartney and Kanye
West.
Pascal Le
Segretain/Getty

• Paul McCartney discussed his history of collaboration
  with Kanye West in a new GQ interview.
• The former Beatle joked about how social media users
  thought West “discovered” him in 2015. 
• McCartney also touched on how he met West in 2008, and
  discussed the making of their 2015 hit single “Four Five
  Seconds.”

Paul McCartney gave
a wide-ranging interview to GQ for a recent feature, and his
late-career collaborations with Kanye West were an extended topic
of conversation in the piece. 

In the interview, the former Beatle joked about how
social media users thought West “discovered” McCartney
following the release of the artists’ first collaboration, West’s
single “Only One,” in 2015. 

“The great thing is, all sorts of hysterical things come
out of it,” McCartney said of his work with West. “I mean,
there’s a lot of people think Kanye discovered me. And that’s not
a joke.”

McCartney also touched on the creation of “Four Five
Seconds,” his 2015 collaboration with Rihanna and West that would
become his biggest hit single in 32 years.

McCartney told GQ that he didn’t recognize his contribution
to the finished product of “Four Five Seconds” until he reached
out to West and learned that an acoustic guitar riff he had laid
down in a studio session was “sped up and consequently raised in
pitch” as the backing track.

McCartney also talked about his first time meeting West in 2008,
when the former Beatle was coming off an acrimonious divorce from
his second wife, Heather Mills, and West was going through the
breakup that inspired his fourth album, “808s & Heartbreak.”

“I’d just gone through my divorce, and I was kind of a
little bit raw from it, and I said something to him about it, and
he’d just broken up with someone,” McCartney said. “And he just
pulled out his phone and played this great little track—I don’t
even remember what it’s called, but it’s one of his famous ones.
So I sort of liked him, and I liked this tune.”

Read the GQ feature here.