PAUL MCCARTNEY, 83, BLOWS THE ROOF OFF UNITED CENTER AS HE RECALLS WITNESSING JIMI HENDRIX FOR THE FIRST TIME — AND THE 58-YEAR-OLD STORY THAT STUNNED FANS INTO SILENCE
At 83 — an age when most would be far from the spotlight — Paul McCartney is still turning every concert into a time-travel event. And on November 24 at Chicago’s United Center, he proved it once again. The voice still strong, the energy impossibly youthful, and then the moment that brought thousands to complete silence: when Paul suddenly paused mid-song to share a memory he has carried with him since 1967.
Just as fans were singing along to “Getting Better,” Paul stepped up to the mic, smiled, and spoke as if opening a door to a room he’d kept untouched for decades:
“I was there — with Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton — the night we first saw Jimi Hendrix live at the Bag O’ Nails. We froze. We knew we were watching something that would change everything.”
The arena went silent, then erupted. It wasn’t just Hendrix’s name that electrified the crowd, but the way Paul told the story — vivid, warm, and emotional, as if he were still standing in that dim London club next to the giants of British rock.
“He remembers every detail — like it happened yesterday”
Fans later said Paul’s eyes lit up as he recalled:
- Hendrix performing Sgt. Pepper just days after the album dropped, shocking the Beatles themselves.
- Pete Townshend standing beside him muttering, “I can’t believe this… I can’t believe this.”
- Jeff Beck shaking his head in awe.
- Clapton “reconsidering guitar entirely.”
Many said they’d seen Paul tell hundreds of stories — but this one, told with such clarity and affection, felt like a piece of his soul.
At 83, Paul still moves across the stage like a 30-year-old
For nearly three hours, Paul didn’t slow down. He bounced from “Band on the Run” to “Live and Let Die” to “Hey Jude,” each moment sending waves of energy through the crowd.
A 62-year-old fan told local press:
“I saw Paul at 40, then at 60. Tonight at 83? He still feels the same. Just with more memories.”
A concert — but also a reminder: history stays alive as long as its witnesses keep telling it
The night ended in fireworks and thousands singing along, but what people kept talking about afterward wasn’t the staging or the encore — it was the story of 1967. A moment when Paul witnessed Hendrix explode onto the world stage, a moment that clearly never left him.
And in Chicago, under thousands of lights, he retold it with the wonder of a 25-year-old who had just seen magic with his own eyes.
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