Paul McCartney burst into laughter over an interviewer’s 3-word question — unaware the fan had waited 31 years for this moment
Grayson Haver Currin said that no one had probably asked the celebrity this question in 60 years.
Recently, magazine writer Grayson Haver Currin (@currincy) sat down to have a chat with Paul McCartney and was overjoyed to recollect some of these childhood memories from the era. When the conversation between the two started, Currin asked him a 3-word question that left the Beatles singer laughing like crazy, as he wrote in an Instagram post on May 16, 2026.
A call he never expected
The other day, Currin, a hiking and music writer, got a call from his boss at Mojo who asked him to spare time for a big interview. He couldn’t say no, obviously, especially after he got to know that he was going to interview McCartney himself. He scheduled a call to profile the music star for the magazine and booked a little study room in the Boulder library for the chat to make sure that the cellphone service was good.
Three words that made McCartney laugh
The phone rang for a few minutes before he picked it up. When he did, Currin asked him a 3-word question, “Is this Paul?” From the other side, he heard McCartney laughing hard. “Because I suppose no one has asked if he is Paul in… 60 years,” the writer assumed. Whatever the reason, the laughter jolted Currin into a childhood memory. “When I was 12, there was a miracle on television. For three nights in late November, just before Thanksgiving 1995, ABC broadcast a series of two-hour specials about the Beatles,” he shared.
Childhood memories
Currin shared that his parents allowed him to stay up late at night and watch the shows. They had grown up with this music, and they felt it was important to pass it on to younger generations. “I was hooked immediately—the story of these poor British kids becoming friends and becoming idols, the songs, the pandemonium that ensued,” Currin recalled. He vividly recounted sitting on the floor of his childhood living room, watching the first installment. His parents bought a two-CD set, Anthology 1, at a department store in Fuquay-Varina and became obsessed with it.
'A life-changer'
A few weeks later, just before Christmas, his family went for a holiday-lights driving tour at Walnut Creek Amphitheater in Raleigh. He sat in the back of a van and listened to Anthology 1 again and again, oblivious to almost everything around him. Three decades later, he says, he can still see the Beatles CD set from where he’s sitting right now. “A good investment, a life-changer,” he remarks in the post. While these memories swam in his head, the conversation with McCartney went on. “The conversation lasted twice as long as it was supposed to last, and I genuinely mean it when I say it was fun,” the reporter noted. Apart from McCartney, he talked with Dolly Parton, a long-time fan of the Beatles' bass guitarist.
The impact of a Beatles record
According to his discography, McCartney produced 27 studio albums as a solo artist and with his band Wings, including 19 solo records, 7 albums, and 12 core UK studio albums with the Beatles. “There’s something about those records that still feels epiphanic, that makes you feel like you, and only you, have just discovered the wonder of music, that no one else will ever have this specific relationship to sound. That’s how I felt, at least,” Currin confessed.
People's reactions
Currin’s post was viewed by more than 2,000 people, and hundreds of them reached out in the comments to share their own memories of McCartney’s music. Referring to the screenshot of the call log Currin shared with McCartney, @fredminnick said, “Man, that is worthy of framing!” @frankiesunswept exclaimed, “Amazing. Could not love this dude more. The older I get, the better his work gets!”
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