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The Man on the Run: Words + Music: Vol. 42
In the 1970s, Paul McCartney was a man on the run.
After the breakup of The Beatles, the biggest and most culturally influential band of the 1960s, Paul McCartney faced an impossible Who was he now? At 27 years old, being a Beatle was all he had known since he was a teenager. Now he had to figure out who he was as an artist, as a husband, and as a father.
In this Audible Original, hear Paul tell the story of his most transformative decade in his own words. Based on interviews conducted with Paul by Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville over three years in Los Angeles, New York, and London, this is an immersive deep dive into this period of his life.
From his retreat to a dilapidated farmhouse in rural Scotland with his wife Linda and their young family, to forming Wings and touring universities in a van, to recording Band on the Run in Nigeria—this is the intimate, unfiltered story of how Paul McCartney reinvented himself. Discover the painful end of The Beatles, his reconciliation with John Lennon, the creation of his solo album McCartney, the collaborative spirit of Ram, and the personal challenges that shaped this extraordinary decade.
This is Paul McCartney's story of creative resilience, personal growth, and the courage to follow his instincts no matter where they a lesson not just in creative freedom, but in what it means to grow up.
Featuring iconic performances from Paul's catalog including "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Band on the Run," "Live and Let Die," and more.
Special Thanks: Scott Rodger, Steve Ithell, Jaime Finkel, Lucie Panton, Lee Eastman, Alex Parker, Alicia Beauchamp Scott, Aoife Corbett, Ben Chappell, Iona Murray-Brown, Jamie Kirkham, Maddy Evans, Mark Levy, Nancy Jeffries, Nansong Lue, Patricia O'Hearn, Richard Ewbank, Richard Miller, Ross Martin, Samantha Townsend, Steve Orchard
After the breakup of The Beatles, the biggest and most culturally influential band of the 1960s, Paul McCartney faced an impossible Who was he now? At 27 years old, being a Beatle was all he had known since he was a teenager. Now he had to figure out who he was as an artist, as a husband, and as a father.
In this Audible Original, hear Paul tell the story of his most transformative decade in his own words. Based on interviews conducted with Paul by Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville over three years in Los Angeles, New York, and London, this is an immersive deep dive into this period of his life.
From his retreat to a dilapidated farmhouse in rural Scotland with his wife Linda and their young family, to forming Wings and touring universities in a van, to recording Band on the Run in Nigeria—this is the intimate, unfiltered story of how Paul McCartney reinvented himself. Discover the painful end of The Beatles, his reconciliation with John Lennon, the creation of his solo album McCartney, the collaborative spirit of Ram, and the personal challenges that shaped this extraordinary decade.
This is Paul McCartney's story of creative resilience, personal growth, and the courage to follow his instincts no matter where they a lesson not just in creative freedom, but in what it means to grow up.
Featuring iconic performances from Paul's catalog including "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Band on the Run," "Live and Let Die," and more.
Special Thanks: Scott Rodger, Steve Ithell, Jaime Finkel, Lucie Panton, Lee Eastman, Alex Parker, Alicia Beauchamp Scott, Aoife Corbett, Ben Chappell, Iona Murray-Brown, Jamie Kirkham, Maddy Evans, Mark Levy, Nancy Jeffries, Nansong Lue, Patricia O'Hearn, Richard Ewbank, Richard Miller, Ross Martin, Samantha Townsend, Steve Orchard
Audible Audio
Published March 19, 2026
About the author
Paul McCartney
966 books523 followersSir James Paul McCartney MBE, known as Paul McCartney, is an English singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, entrepreneur, painter, record producer, film producer, and animal-rights activist. He gained worldwide fame as one of the founders and members of The Beatles. McCartney and John Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history". After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman McCartney, and songwriter/singer Denny Laine. He has worked on film scores, classical music, and ambient/electronic music; released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist; and taken part in projects to help international charities.
McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million singles. His song "Yesterday" is listed as the most covered song in history and has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American television and radio. Wings' 1977 single "Mull of Kintyre" became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK, and remains the UK's top selling non-charity single. (Three charity singles have since surpassed it in sales; the first to do so—in 1984—was Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose participants included McCartney.)
His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, including all of the songs written by Buddy Holly, along with the publishing rights to such musicals as Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and Grease.
An iconic figure in contemporary culture, he is regarded internationally as an entertainer and humanitarian. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is an actor, a painter, a poet, and an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education; he is active in campaigns against landmines, seal hunting, and Third World debt.
McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million singles. His song "Yesterday" is listed as the most covered song in history and has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American television and radio. Wings' 1977 single "Mull of Kintyre" became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK, and remains the UK's top selling non-charity single. (Three charity singles have since surpassed it in sales; the first to do so—in 1984—was Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose participants included McCartney.)
His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, including all of the songs written by Buddy Holly, along with the publishing rights to such musicals as Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and Grease.
An iconic figure in contemporary culture, he is regarded internationally as an entertainer and humanitarian. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is an actor, a painter, a poet, and an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education; he is active in campaigns against landmines, seal hunting, and Third World debt.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 22, 2026
Ex-Beatle on the Run in the 1970s
A review of the Audible Original audiobook (March 19, 2026).
This 3 hour audiobook was a natural progression after reading McCartney's photo memoir of the early Beatles' days in 1964: Eyes of the Storm (2023) and then seeing its related exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario last week.
The Man on the Run is McCartney being interviewed by documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville about the 1970s and his early post-Beatles years with wife Linda McCartney and the 1970s when they formed the band Wings with Denny Laine and others. It is primarily McCartney speaking with a dozen or so snippets from various live performances of Wings and Beatles songs edited in.
The audiobook is a tie-in to the documentary film Man on the Run (2025) which wide-premiered via streaming on Prime Video on February 27, 2026. It had originally premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2025.
In the interviews McCartney comes across as self-deprecating and humorous, just as in the earlier photo-essay. He is especially warm about his memories of wife Linda McCartney (1941-1998). It is mostly forgotten now that it was Linda that converted Paul to a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and animal rights activism which was a huge boost to that movement from the 1970s onwards. Also that having Linda in the Wings band was precedent-setting for later mixed female & male music groups in general.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album for the Man on the Run film is available on Spotify which you can listen to here.
Trivia and Links
The Man on the Run is Volume 42 in Audible Originals occasional series Words + Music which contain interviews and music performances by various musicians. I don't think there is a Goodreads Listopedia for them but you should be able to see most of them listed at Audible with a search for Words + Music. At 3 hours, The Man on the Run is twice as long as most of the others which average 1 and 1/2 hours.
A 36 minute video excerpt of the Neville-McCartney interviews can be seen on YouTube here.
See the trailer for the Man on the Run film on YouTube here.
Bonus Tracks
The Man on the Run also serves as a companion piece to McCartney's other recent memoir Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run (November 4, 2025) and its associated 3LP/2CD compilation box-set Wings. (November 7, 2025).
A review of the Audible Original audiobook (March 19, 2026).
This 3 hour audiobook was a natural progression after reading McCartney's photo memoir of the early Beatles' days in 1964: Eyes of the Storm (2023) and then seeing its related exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario last week.
The Man on the Run is McCartney being interviewed by documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville about the 1970s and his early post-Beatles years with wife Linda McCartney and the 1970s when they formed the band Wings with Denny Laine and others. It is primarily McCartney speaking with a dozen or so snippets from various live performances of Wings and Beatles songs edited in.
The audiobook is a tie-in to the documentary film Man on the Run (2025) which wide-premiered via streaming on Prime Video on February 27, 2026. It had originally premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2025.
In the interviews McCartney comes across as self-deprecating and humorous, just as in the earlier photo-essay. He is especially warm about his memories of wife Linda McCartney (1941-1998). It is mostly forgotten now that it was Linda that converted Paul to a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and animal rights activism which was a huge boost to that movement from the 1970s onwards. Also that having Linda in the Wings band was precedent-setting for later mixed female & male music groups in general.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album for the Man on the Run film is available on Spotify which you can listen to here.
Trivia and Links
The Man on the Run is Volume 42 in Audible Originals occasional series Words + Music which contain interviews and music performances by various musicians. I don't think there is a Goodreads Listopedia for them but you should be able to see most of them listed at Audible with a search for Words + Music. At 3 hours, The Man on the Run is twice as long as most of the others which average 1 and 1/2 hours.
A 36 minute video excerpt of the Neville-McCartney interviews can be seen on YouTube here.
See the trailer for the Man on the Run film on YouTube here.
Bonus Tracks
The Man on the Run also serves as a companion piece to McCartney's other recent memoir Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run (November 4, 2025) and its associated 3LP/2CD compilation box-set Wings. (November 7, 2025).
May 3, 2026
This is an Audible “Words and Music” episode rather than an Audible book. I’m not sure how the content compares to the actual book version, but I just watched the documentary and this is definitely an abridged version of that.
I’m not in love with the forma, though it’s somewhat interesting in interspersing clips of rare McCartney recordings with the narrated content. I also didn’t like the narrated content much - although edited and sequenced, it is basically Paul responding to questions in his own laconic fashion (too much “that was great!” for me).
The material isn’t complete, and more or less just covers the highlights of the Wings era. There won’t be a lot new here for McCartney fans. What does shine through though is the love he had with Linda. That maybe surprisingly is the real story of this era.
I’m not in love with the forma, though it’s somewhat interesting in interspersing clips of rare McCartney recordings with the narrated content. I also didn’t like the narrated content much - although edited and sequenced, it is basically Paul responding to questions in his own laconic fashion (too much “that was great!” for me).
The material isn’t complete, and more or less just covers the highlights of the Wings era. There won’t be a lot new here for McCartney fans. What does shine through though is the love he had with Linda. That maybe surprisingly is the real story of this era.
April 9, 2026
PAUL McCARTNEY: THE MAN ON THE RUN is an Audible original biography. A companion piece to the recent documentary, it covers the same story of Paul McCartney after the Beatles. However, this is all McCartney with anecdotes, recollections that didn't make it into the cut. A 3hr chat worth your time if you're a fan
March 27, 2026
a freaking genius, that's what he is.
March 29, 2026
cried for the entirety of the last 20 minutes 👍🏻
April 2, 2026
Huge Beatles and McCartney fan here!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews