About Musician Habits Now That Concert 2-3 Hours, McCartney: This Is Bruce Springteen's Wrong!

Paul McVartney and Bruce Springteen (Instagram @paulmccartney)

JAKARTA - Paul McCartney "disadvantaged" Bruce Springsteen over the habit of performing on stage for musicians who are now getting longer.

The 81-year-old former Beatles bassist spoke on Conan O'Brien's podcast, 'Needs A Friend' when he reflected on a long stage performance by a musician. He said Springsteen was to blame for it.

According to McCartney, it was The Boss who started the trend of playing a long setlist that lasted hours, which made it impossible to escape with shorter sets.

He also explained that The Beatles often played only 30 minutes during their heyday in the 60s, and this was never a problem for fans.

"Recently, there's almost a major chapter and maybe there's a warm-up round," he started. Then [in the 1960s], a lot of people have to pay because no one has been working for a long time, now people are going to work for three or four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen - I told him, I said 'This is my job, my friend'.

"Now you can't have an hour's concert, we usually do half an hour. It's The Beatles half an hour and we're paid for it."

He continued, trying to explain why playing a shorter set in the past was normal, and explained that it was mostly caused by a number of other actions that would perform during the show.

"I'm trying to figure out why it's so short. Yes, because a lot of people are included in the lineup of the show," he said. I think when you go somewhere if you're a comedian, the promoter will say 'How long can you perform? Four minutes?.

"The man will say yes, so they will appear four minutes and so we thought, 'yah, half an hour is like epic'... It doesn't seem strange'."

Last year, McCartney celebrated his 80th birthday with a three-hour main title slot at Glastonbury 2022. The show features him playing classic songs from his entire solo career and his time with The Beatles, as well as a "duet" with his former bandmate John Lennon, with footage of the late singer being shown behind him. Springsteen also joined McCartney on stage for the set.

McCartney was also seen behind the scenes in Glastonbury this year, and - although he did not appear - he appeared briefly on stage with The Pretenders at the end of their set.

As for Springsteen, The Boss continues to be strong with its giant live show and is currently on tour with the E Street Band. The singer will also play the headline set with his band at BST Hyde Park on July 6 and July 8.

Earlier this year, he also made headlines after appearing surprising at an Irish pub, singing with local musicians before his main show at the RDS Arena Dublin.