Paul McCartney was just in Rhode Island to screen his new doc for Brown students

Ladies and gentlemen… a Beatle! Yup, Sir Paul McCartney took stage in Providence for a documentary screening and discussion at Veterans Memorial Auditorium April 20.

The free event was for the Brown University community, which includes McCartney’s granddaughter, an undergraduate, per Brown. 

This has to officially be the ultimate “someone’s grandpa spoke to our class today” moment for any New England student.

Some 2,000 Brown community members packed The Vets to watch “Man on the Run,” directed by Oscar Winner Morgan Neville, according to Brown, followed by a conversation with McCartney and Neville, moderated by Brown President Christina H. Paxson.

The documentary, which premiered at Telluride in 2025, is billed as “an intimate portrait of Paul McCartney’s trajectory after The Beatles, as he and his wife Linda form Wings.”  It earned a standing ovation from the Brown crowd, per Brown.

Looks like you can watch it at home (sans Sir Paul) via Prime Video. 

A review in NME:  “The director does an excellent job of capturing the weight of expectations laid at McCartney’s door in April 1970 … [McCartney’s] depiction in Man On The Run: goofy and a little corny, but always endearingly himself.” 

Rolling Stone UK: “Wings were the success that McCartney had always envisaged them being. It may have took some time, as this documentary shows in admirably honest detail.”

Now listen to what the man said. (Had to.)

McCartney told the Providence crowd, per Brown: “There were bits of it that got embarrassing, where I thought, maybe we should take those out, because I’m going to be sitting there squirming like I was tonight.”

“It’s part of the journey,” Neville said, per Brown. “Failure is how you learn, too. Even things that seem like failure at the time redefine themselves over time.”

McCartney told the Providence crowd that watching his late wife, talented photographer Linda McCartney, was “very hard,” per Brown: “You know, we’ve lost people in this film, particularly Linda, and so it was very hard — and at the same time glorious — to see her and to see her humor,” he said.

As any Beatles fan could tell you, Paul and John Lennon had a complex relationship. Brown reports McCartney told the crowd that Neville, “very sweetly, I thought, put in the fact that we really loved each other, and that made it so much better for me.”

Sean Ono Lennon, Lennon and Yoko Ono’s son, is one of many Beatles-centric voices featured in the film.

“It was great to hear him speak so lovingly of me and his dad, and he gets it right,” McCartney told the Providence crowd, per Brown. “What’s interesting is that, even though he never saw us together much, he sensed the truth.”

At one point, the conversation focused on what continues to drive Sir Paul, who turns 84 next month, and just wrapped a North American tour last year. His next studio album, “The Boys of Dungeon Lane” releases May 29. 

In fact, just four days before the PVD event, the octogenarian was in LA discussing his new album. On May 16, he’ll appear on SNL with Will Ferrell. 

“If I didn’t do it as a job, I would do it as a hobby, because it’s just in me,” McCartney said, per Brown. “There’s something magical in any art-form about discovering ‘that thing.’ It might be a chord in music, or a color combination in painting. In science, maybe it’s some little discovery, the eureka moment — it’s just so exciting, and it never gets boring.” 

This isn’t the first big star to speak at Brown this academic year. 

Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow spoke in October during Family Weekend at Providence’s Brown University — Moses Martin, ’28, her son with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, is in his second year. Ken Burns also spoke in October.  

“This happens every time,” one Instagrammer commented on Brown’s Sir Paul post. “I’m there until the afternoon and then either Ken Burns, Paul McCartney or Gwyneth Paltrow show up! Just my luck!”

Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.

Lauren Daley is a longtime culture journalist. As a regular contributor to Boston.com, she interviews A-list musicians, actors, authors and other major artists.

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