Paul McCartney says ‘Hey Jude’ brings a divided America together

By Jill Lances May 14, 2026 | 4:15 PM

Paul McCartney performs at The O2 Arena on December 18, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns)

Paul McCartney was a guest on this week’s Goalhanger podcast, The Rest is Entertainment, where he talked about the importance of his iconic Beatles tune “Hey Jude” in bringing folks together.

“Particularly these days, too, you do something like ‘Hey Jude’ and you see this whole audience singing together,” McCartney says. “I mean, in Trump’s America, and the Republicans and Democrats all at each other’s throats — when we do that song, they’re not.”

“They’re all loving it, and it’s like, wow, this is pretty amazing,” he adds. “You know, suddenly this room has forgotten all of that, and is not, you know, going to argue with each other, they’re just going to sing together. So those kinds of things, I think, are valuable.” He notes, “I like that, and I also like it for them.”

In talking about pleasing his audience, McCartney brought up Bob Dylan, noting he has seen him live a couple times and “I couldn’t tell what song the song was he was doing.”

“I get it if he doesn’t want to do ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ you know, maybe he’s fed up with that, but I would like to hear it,” he says. “And I’ve paid.”

McCartney is set to appear on another Goalhanger podcast, The Rest is History, which debuts Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. During the appearance he discusses growing up in Liverpool, The Beatles’ creative process and more. He also debuts a clip of the new song “Salesman Saint” from his upcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which will be released May 29.