PAUL McCARTNEY KICKS OFF U.S. TOUR TONIGHT IN MIAMI

Paul McCartney is back and kicking off his U.S. tour tonight (July 7th) at Miami, Florida's American Airlines Arena. In addition to today also being Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr's 77th birthday, July 7th also marks what would have been "Macca's" father, Jim McCartney's 115th birthday. McCartney has stateside dates spread out through October, before his "One On One" tour heads to South America and -- for the first time in 25 years -- to Australia and New Zealand.

McCartney chatted with Rolling Stone about the tour, and was asked if he sees himself as being competitive with other artists on the road, and explained, "I think everyone, when they do a job, tries to be the best they can. So yeah, I guess I'm competitive. Not in a crazy way: If someone does better than us, I don't go home and cry. But it's just a natural thing. . . In the Beatles, we always tried to be the best band in Liverpool. Then we tried to be the best band in England. Then we tried to be the best in the world. It's just an instinct. But I think what you have to think of, really, is what if you didn't think like that? Then you're going to get sloppy. You're going to think, 'Does it matter? I'll just do a bunch of s*** tonight and no one will mind.' So I just like to put it in and don't phone it in. I suppose that ends up making me competitive."

• McCartney went on to talk about the setlist, which is teeming with Beatles and Wings hits: "We're doing 'A Hard Day's Night,' which we hadn't done before this tour. And that opening chord is still a thrill. So that's good to do. I like doing 'Temporary Secretary,' (from 1980's McCartney II) because that's a little bit of a challenge and it's got an electronic pulse. So that's cool. I like doing 'Band On The Run,' 'Live And Let Die" and 'Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five' from Wings. I like doing the ballad I wrote for (my wife) Nancy, 'My Valentine.' I also like doing 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite,' that's nice to do. . . With '. . Mr. Kite,' the thing about it is, it's quite challenging cause the bass part goes somewhere that the vocal doesn't go. So it's like you've got to split your body in half and send one half to do the vocal and send the other half to do the bass part. That's good to do; it's quite hard to do."
• When asked about advice for up and coming musicians, McCartney who made his bones with the Beatles playing six-hours a night in Hamburg, said: "Play a lot. Play bars and then play some more. Because the more you play, the more you grow. And there's really no substitute. And that goes for whatever it is you do: If you DJ, do that a lot. If you're a guitar player, do that a lot. If you're a band, do that a lot. It's how everyone learns. It's how you learn what you're good at, who you are, and you just get better. Hopefully."
• Over 50 years since the Beatles' final tour, Paul McCartney, explained that touring today is a world away from how the "Fab Four" performed in the 1960's: "The beginning of the Beatles’ whole thing, before it really all took off; we used to put to guitars and a bass into one amp. So, I mean, there’s a major difference now -- no one would think of doing that now. You didn’t take P.A.’s around, you’d just use the microphone in the hall. A couple of little speakers along the side. So, the technology has just gone mad, y’know? It’s good, it means you can go play big places. It means you can play to an audience of 100,000, or something. Whereas we took ‘round, like, one roadie -- now, you take around 140 people, y’know it’s (exaggerated voice) it’s quite a business, now." :
  July 7 - Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena
  July 10 - Tampa, FL - Amalie Arena
  July 13 - Duluth, GA - Infinite Energy Center
  July 15 - Bossier City, LA - CenturyLink Center
  July 19 - Wichita, KS - Intrust Bank Arena
  July 21 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena
  July 23 - Omaha, NE - CenturyLink Center Omaha
  July 25, 27 - Tinley Park, IL - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
  September 11, 12 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
  September 15, 17 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden Arena
  September 19, 21 - Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center
  September 23 - Syracuse, NY - Carrier Dome
  September 26, 27 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
  October 1, 2 - Detroit, MI - Little Caesars Arena
  October 13 - Porto Alegre, Brazil - Estadio Beira-Rio
  October 15 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Allianz Parque
  October 17 - Belo Horizonte, Brazil - Mineirao Stadium
  October 20 - Salvador, Brazil - Itaipava Arena - Fonte Nova
  October 28 - Mexico City, Mexico - Estadio Azteca
  December 2 - Perth, Australia - nib Stadium
  December 5, 6 - Melbourne, Australia - AAMI Park
  December 9 - Brisbane, Australia - Suncorp Stadium
  December 11, 12 - Sydney, Australia - Qudos Bank Arena
  December 16 - Auckland, New Zealand - Mt Smart Stadium