You Gave Me The Answer - 'GOT BACK' Tour Fan Q&A in Adelaide

It’s official: the GOT BACK tour is back on the road.

Paul is midway through the epic Australian leg, and has already played to audiences in Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney. It’s good to be back!

It’s been six years since Paul last visited ‘Oz’, and did you know this tour marks his first live appearances in Newcastle and Gold Coast? Some readers might remember The Beatles’ famous 1964 visit to Adelaide where the band were greeted by an estimated crowd of 350,000 people. The streets were lined all the way from the airport to the city centre! 

Paul’s return to Australia has been hotly anticipated and the day before the band took to the stage in Adelaide for the first show of the tour, Paul held an intimate Q&A with some lucky local fans.

Here are some of our favourite questions (and answers!) from that special day… 

Paul: Well, hello Adelaideans! Great to be here!

Rachel: Hi Paul! Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. As a born and bred Adelaidean, I wanted to ask about when you came here with The Beatles in 1964, and you were looking out at a huge crowd. What were you feeling? What were your emotions at that time?

Paul: It was overwhelming really. We'd got famous and had seen big crowds full of screaming fans and stuff, but seeing that many people, on this scale... it was insane! So, we were just standing there like, ‘This’ll do!’ It was fantastic, you know. It was something special.

Alida and Dana: We just got off the plane a couple of days ago. We took a long flight from the United States and Canada. We were wondering: how do you get over jet lag? Because we’re struggling!

Paul: Sleep a lot, basically! When we came out here the first bit of the flight was from Los Angeles to Fiji. Only trouble was, it was at night when we got to Fiji, so we didn't really see anything except the airport. But then we slept the whole way. So, when we got here, we kind of started sleeping again, and a friend of ours gave us some tablets that are meant to help with jet lag. A couple of those helped!

Greg: Hi Paul. I'm Greg.

Paul: Hi Greg, I’m Paul! 

Greg: This is your fifth visit to Australia, and I wondered if you’ve ever written a song while you've been here in Australia?

Paul: I think so. But I can't specifically say, ‘Yeah, I remember sitting down and writing that song’. But I'm always writing songs, so there's a very good chance I did! Songwriting is kind of my hobby. So, if I've got a day off, it's likely I might write something just because I love to do it.

Olivia: Hi Paul. My name is Olivia, and I'm here with my fiancé Bill. I do have a strange question: I would like to know if you could only choose one, what would you choose? Bread or potatoes?

Paul: Bread or potatoes? Ha! That is a strange question, and I would have to go for bread. Although I like potatoes too… well, if you’d have said chips, I would have been persuaded!

Kim: It's an honour to see you here in Adelaide. You're my favourite artist. My dad is from Liverpool, and I have a lot of friends and family who say hi. My question for you is: do you still have your Rickenbacker bass? The bass you used during your time with Wings?

Paul: Yeah, I do. I don't play it as much now. I play it sometimes in the studio, but I've really got used to my Höfner bass that I play in the show, which is a good one. The Rickenbacker is a bit heavier, physically, so that when I put the Höfner on, it's so light it kind of makes you play differently. I have to say, I do like the Höfner.

I bought my first bass for about £30, it wasn’t an expensive bass. But now it's worth a bit more! They turn into investments, which is crazy, but guitars do that no matter who buys them. If it's a really nice guitar, they tend to go up in value.

Nicola: Hi Paul, I’m Nicola and this is my dad, Vince. It’s Dad's birthday, so this is going to be the best birthday yet! You have made such an impact on my dad's life, and in turn, my life. So, I wanted to ask you: who is that person for you that's made the most profound impact on your life?

Paul: In music? It's so difficult just to choose one person, really. I’d probably have to choose John Lennon.

Nicola: Dad guessed that.

Vince: I was hoping you would say that, Paul!

Paul: It was so nice because we met through a friend of mine, a schoolmate. And we just got on really well and kept writing and performing and stuff. He was an amazing guy. Really kind of crazy in one way, but very loving in another way. And he was a genius, you know.

Thank you, Adelaideans, for a great start to the GOT BACK tour! After such a wide-reaching Q&A, one of these questions did stick out in Paul’s mind, and he came up with a second answer for us to include here. Bread or potatoes? Bread? Or potatoes...? 

Like many of Paul’s great ideas, it came to him in his sleep. When he awoke the morning after the event he thought: “Chip butty!”

The GOT BACK tour continues through 2023, with dates in Mexico and Brazil rounding off an incredible year! Check out the full list of tour dates and ticket information here.

If you can’t make it to a show, but still want to celebrate Paul’s return to the stage, you can create your own dream setlist using our setlist generator here. And keep an eye on Paul’s social media channels for the latest updates, videos and messages from the road!