James McCartney

The only child of former Beatle Paul McCartney, James McCartney is a songwriter and musician of British and US descent. He has contributed to his parents’ solo albums, including Paul McCartney’s Flaming Pie (1997) and Driving Rain (2001) and Linda McCartney’s Wide Prairie (1998). James has contributed guitar and drums to his father’s solo albums, as well as co-writing a few songs. On the track “Heaven on a Sunday” from Flaming Pie, he plays an electric guitar solo. He co-wrote “Spinning on an Axis” and “Back in the Sunshine Again” with his father on Driving Rain, and he also played percussion on the former and guitar on the latter. McCartney also performs lead guitar on his mother’s posthumously released solo album, Wide Prairie (1998), which featured music recorded privately over a twenty-year period.

In 2004, McCartney moved out of his family home and into a flat in Brighton, England, where he worked as a waiter while attending college and writing music. He accompanied his father on his US Tour in 2005. In April 2012, McCartney told a BBC journalist that he had considered establishing a “next generation” Beatles group with Sean Lennon, Zak Starkey, and Dhani Harrison.

In May 2013, McCartney released his debut album, Me. The album was accompanied by a tour of the United States, which began in April of that year. In August, McCartney performed at the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco. For the album The Art of McCartney, a collection of The Beatles and Paul McCartney solo covers, he recorded The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye” with rock legends The Cure. McCartney’s studio album The Blackberry Train was released in May 2016.