By Stig Editor Paul McCartney: “Why I’m Not Afraid of Death at 83”
By Paul McCartney
June 18, 2025
At 83, I find myself asked a lot about aging, legacy, and yes — death. It’s funny how the question comes so often, yet the answer has always felt quite simple to me: I’m not afraid of death. Not because I’m reckless or fearless, but because I’ve lived a life filled with love, music, and meaning.
When you’ve spent more than six decades writing songs, losing friends, raising a family, and touring the world, you start to see life not as a straight line, but as a cycle — a rhythm, really. The same way a song starts and ends, life has its verses and choruses, its crescendos and quiet endings. And like every great melody, it lives on even after the final note is played.
I think a lot about John, George, my parents, Linda. They’re all gone in body, but not in presence. I feel them with me. That’s the thing — you realize death isn’t an end, it’s a transformation. Their voices still echo in my memories, their love in my heart. And someday, when I go, I hope it’ll be the same for those I leave behind.
I’ve always believed in something greater — call it energy, spirit, soul. You don’t have to have all the answers to know that life is part of something bigger. Music has taught me that. The way it connects people across time and space — how one song can live in someone else’s story long after you’re gone — that’s immortality in its own way.
Of course, I still enjoy life. I’m still writing, still singing, still finding magic in the simplest things: watching the sun rise, hearing a bird sing in the morning, laughing with my grandchildren. But I don’t cling to life out of fear of losing it. I try to appreciate it, day by day, and trust that when the time comes, it will be just another stage — the next movement in the great symphony of existence.
If anything, growing older has made me more grateful. I’m grateful for the music, the fans, the love, the chance to grow old when so many dear ones didn’t. And when my time comes, I won’t go with regret. I’ll go with a full heart, knowing I gave all I could, loved deeply, and left a little music behind.
So no — I’m not afraid of death. I just hope the journey keeps playing on, in one key or another.
— Paul