Paul McCartney sets new podcast, 'A Life in Lyrics'

Music icon Paul McCartney and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, who collaborated on the singer-songwriter’s annotated book “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present” (2021), have reteamed for the new podcast “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics,” premiering Sept. 20.

Each episode focuses on one McCartney song, ranging from his early Beatles work to recent compositions. “We recorded many hours of conversations, drawing out details from McCartney's memory and hidden meanings from the music,” Muldoon, 72, says in an audio trailer. “We realized,” he adds, “there was something very special happening in these conversations. … Many times over the years, Paul McCartney has been asked to write his autobiography. It's a request he's always denied, never feeling it to be the right time. But as we ventured out on this journey, line by line, it became clear how much of McCartney's biography is indeed embedded in the lyrics.”

The two, Muldoon says, “went song by song, but as you will hear, our conversations often strayed from the songs themselves as McCartney reflected on the lyrics that tell the story of his life.” McCartney, 81, has been inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, first in 1988 with The Beatles and then in 1999 solo.