Sir has recalled the moment his life was put into serious danger after being robbed at knifepoint back in the 1970s.
The, 81, was married to his first wife Linda at the time of the incident, which occurred more than 50 years ago.
Sir Paul and Linda were working in Lagos, Nigeria at the time, recording parts of the eventual , when they were ambushed by a group of men.
‘[We had] cameras, tape recorders, cassettes in a bag, and Linda’s photographic equipment,’ Sir Paul said, revealing that they’d been visiting some of the crew responsible for putting the album together.
He continued: ‘We’d been visiting some of our crew at their house and someone said, “Do you want a lift home?” We said, “It’s such a beautiful night, we’ll walk.”‘
However, on the walk, the couple entered a so-called ‘no-go area’ of the city and unfortunately paid the price when they were approached by a group of men in a car.
‘[We] thought we were being offered a lift when a car stopped and the driver wound down his window. I just say, “No, listen, man, very nice of you but we don’t need a lift.
He continued: ‘The [car] contained about five or six local guys – it drove off but then suddenly stopped again. All of them get out. I said, “Holy cow. Wait a minute, they’re not offering us a lift.” The penny drops.
‘One of the guys is holding a knife. We give them all our stuff and they get back in the car. Screech off. They go the wrong way. They come back and we’re [thinking] they’re going to finish us of.’
Sir Paul and Linda eventually made their way back to their hotel and tried to ‘forget’ the ordeal, but the next day they were told by a recording studio manager that if they would have been Ki**ed if they weren’t white.
‘[We were told] if we were black, they could have Ki**ed us because we might have recognised them.’
Despite losing dozens of demo recordings for the album, a rule instilled by John Lennon during Sir Paul’s days in The Beatles saved Band on the Run from ruin.
‘We didn’t have cassettes or recording devices back then [in The Beatles]. We used to say, “If you can’t remember it, how will the people remember it?”
While another precious item of Sir Paul’s wasn’t stolen, there is a he played during the height of Beatlemania.
Although it appeared in the Get Back documentary, filmed during The Beatles’ last months as a band, the bass went missing shortly before they broke up and hasn’t been seen since.
Some people do believe it was stolen from Abbey Road studios, while others think it may have become lost at the band’s headquarters on Savile Row.
