Paul McCartney’s grandkids keep him grounded

Sir Paul McCartney, the 77-year-old Beatles legend, admits that his eight grandkids know that he is famous for his music but that they just know him as “Grandude” and aren’t impressed by his celebrity status.

During an interview on ‘This Morning’ yesterday, he said: “You see old granddad walking out on stage, but I’ll pick them up from school and take them for an ice cream somewhere. Then they’ll see me getting noticed in the street, and they’ll watch how I deal with it, and when they walk away, we’ll laugh at it. For a minute, I’m the famous guy, then I’m suddenly Grandude.”

Paul’s grandchildren – his daughter Mary’s kids Arthur, 20, Elliot, 17, Sam, 11, and Sid, eight, and Miller, 14, Bailey, 13, Beckett, 11, and Reiley, nine, whose mother is fashion designer Stella – inspired the musician to write his children’s book Hey Grandude! after one of them gave him the name.

The book – which has a name inspired by the Beatles hit Hey Jude – tells the story of a granddad who goes on magical adventures with his three grandchildren.

Paul explained: “It came about originally because one of my grandkids call me ‘Grandude’. I went away one day and thought, ‘It might be good to make a character to be able to read it to my grandkids.’”

The rocker also admitted that his wife, Nancy Shevell, 59, has forbidden him from keeping various items and memorabilia from his Beatles days.

He revealed: “I don’t collect stuff. I should have got one of every record, but my wife, Nancy, doesn’t like clutter. She wanted to chuck everything out … . There could be an original lyric to Yesterday in there (a book), so I’d wanna keep it.”