Paul McCartney Serenades His Wife Nancy, Leads Sing-Alongs and Makes His Only Texas Concert Unforgettable

Sir Paul McCartney made a stop at Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena Tuesday night for his only Texas tour date. The last time Paul McCartney took to a stage in Fort Worth, it was with a little band called Wings, way back in 1976.

Of course, McCartney did play at the former Globe Life Park in Arlington in 2019, but this night marked his epic return to Fort Worth. The momentous occasion wasn’t lost on the city, which temporarily renamed a stretch of Montgomery Street, which fronts Dickies Arena, Paul McCartney Way to celebrate.

McCartney’s Got Back Tour is currently crossing the nation with its 13 American stops, starting with Seattle on May 3 and scheduled to end in East Rutherford, New Jersey on June 16.

McCartney’s Fort Worth concert set list did not disappoint. This is what you get at a Paul McCartney show in 2022: You will hear the songs you came to hear, and enjoy the left curves thrown into the mix.

There was only one wardrobe change, which took place a few songs in, when the 79-year-old McCartney shed his black jean jacket, revealing a black vest underneath and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. This music legend was ready to get down to business.

The fans certainly got their money’s worth as the concert lasted nearly three hours.

A few Beatle’s songs were synchronized to vintage footage, courtesy of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who compiled it from what The Beatles filmed during their studio sessions for their last album, Let It Be. Of course, Jackson did the epic The Beatles: Get Back documentary, which spans eight hours and turned into a streaming sensation when it was released.

During McCartney’s Fort Worth concert, the video image of John Lennon harmonized with him on “I’ve Got a Feeling”.

Paul McCartney also directed the packed house at Dickies (which seemed to be at least half filled by out-of-towners) in several sing-alongs. It helps when everyone in the room knows all the words to your songs by heart. The crowd lent its backup vocals throughout the concert. Not that McCartney needed us.

When he took to the piano to sing the love ballad, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” we all were amazed when McCartney hit all the high notes, never faltering.

During the Fort Worth concert, McCartney played several guitars, the piano, a mandolin and the ukulele when he and his band performed “Something” in honor of George Harrison. The crowd also got to sing along to “You Never Give Me Your Money,” a song McCartney says he had never sung live prior to this tour.

McCartney went solo on “Blackbird” as the stage rose some 10 feet underneath him. He wrote the song at the height of the Civil Rights marches and protests, “to give them a bit of encouragement” in his own telling. The image of a blackbird transformed into a dove mid-flight on the Dickies Arena video screens.

With his wife Nancy in the audience, McCartney dedicated “My Valentine” to her. The words of the song were signed in videos by Natalie Portman and (awkwardly, with his trial still very much top-of-mind) Johnny Depp. The song itself came across as romantic and endearing nonetheless.

Pyrotechnics lit the arena during  “Live and Let Die.” You could feel the heat from flashes of fire to bursts of fireworks. Unlike a lot of older music legends who hit the road with a basic laser light show, (which was perfectly adequate in the 1970s), McCartney pulled out all the stops and really put on a show for the Texas crowd.

After all, he’s taken a long time to get here.

Of course, The Beatles first arrived on American shores in 1964, getting greeted by crushes of fans. And remarkably playing their final paid concert only two years later. Unruly crowds had become more like mobs. The sound equipment was not up to the task. You could barely hear the band for all the screaming.

What was the point? So, The Beatles took to the studio and produced their greatest albums over the next four years.

Then, in the post-Fab Four world of the 1970s, Paul and his first wife Linda hit the road again, touring with their new band Wings. The rock-and-roll icon has had an amazing solo career as well. McCartney, who will celebrate his 80th birthday on June 18, remains prolific. His most recent album called McCartney III was released in 2020.

Paul McCartney On the New Stuff

While McCartney says he would love to perform a concert of just his new stuff, he understands, that people come to hear their favorites.

“Most of the people who come and see me, who have paid good money, have brought their mums and dads who have traveled a distance. . . I’m not so sure they wanna hear the deep cuts,” McCartney says in an interview on PaulMcCartney.com. “I think they want Beatles stuff mainly, Wings stuff and maybe some of the new stuff.

“I force some of the new stuff on them. I know which ones people like because you can see it all light up, all the phones recording. . . when you say you want to do a new one it’s like a black hole!”

Old and new, Paul McCartney certainly made his only Texas concert count.