Paul McCartney has written more than enough songs to be excused for forgetting the occasional lyric, but the Beatles icon apparently gave pre-gig drinking the flick after forgetting a few too many in decades past.

In a new interview with The Mirror, the 75-year-old explains that he keeps himself in mint condition before every gig these days, having been asked if he still got stuck into the rider to calm the nerves.

“I used to try that,” he said, “particularly in the early days of Wings when we would tour. But it didn’t work – I would just forget the lyrics I didn’t know anyway.”

Nowadays he’s calmed things down a bit, and the rider mostly consists of a few cheeky snacks.

“I don’t eat or drink before I go on because I sort of like to feel light,” he added. “Then afterwards I can get heavy and have a drink. Before I go on I don’t do that.

“But I do have little sort of snacky things in the dressing room that I might just grab, like chocolate covered raisins and equal amount of salted cashews.”

Meanwhile, the 77-year-old Tom Jones is out partying well into Sunday morning with Axl Rose until the police have to shut their party down. To each their own!

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In the early days, it didn’t matter what lyrics he sang – nobody could hear them over the screaming

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