Paul McCartney Honored Linda and Nancy in the Same Desert Trip Set — Then Turned 2½ Hours Into a Journey Through His Life
Paul McCartney’s headlining appearance at Desert Trip in 2016 was packed with Beatles classics, Wings favorites and unexpected collaborations, but some of the evening’s most memorable moments came when the music became deeply personal.
Performing at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, on October 8, McCartney devoted part of his two-and-a-half-hour set to two women who had shaped very different chapters of his life: his late wife Linda McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell.
“Maybe I’m Amazed,” one of McCartney’s most enduring solo songs, was dedicated to Linda, while “My Valentine” was performed for Nancy on the eve of their fifth wedding anniversary.
It was one emotional thread in a sprawling performance that moved through more than half a century of McCartney’s music.
Remembering Linda while celebrating Nancy
McCartney wrote “Maybe I’m Amazed” during the turbulent period surrounding the Beatles’ breakup, with Linda becoming an essential source of support as he entered an uncertain new phase of his life.
At Desert Trip, the song became a way of remembering the woman who remained beside him through their marriage, family life and years together in Wings before her death from breast cancer in 1998.
Later came “My Valentine,” written for Nancy, whom McCartney married in 2011. With their fifth anniversary falling the following day, the dedication gave the concert another intimate moment — this time focused on the life he had built in the years since Linda’s death.
Rather than separating his past from his present, McCartney allowed both to exist naturally within the same evening.
A ukulele tribute to George Harrison
Linda and Nancy were not the only important figures from McCartney’s life represented in the show.
When it came time to remember George Harrison, McCartney picked up a ukulele to perform the Harrison-penned Beatles classic “Something.”
The first attempt did not go entirely according to plan. Realizing the instrument was out of tune, McCartney stopped and asked for another ukulele. He then joked that the mishap at least proved the performance was live before starting again.
The lighthearted interruption eventually gave way to one of the evening’s affectionate tributes to his former Beatles bandmate.
McCartney had previously explained that Harrison was a keen ukulele player, making the instrument a particularly fitting choice for “Something.”
Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones also entered the story
McCartney’s musical memories extended beyond the Beatles.
During “Let Me Roll It,” he and his band moved into a brief “Foxy Lady” jam in tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
He also acknowledged the Rolling Stones with “I Wanna Be Your Man,” the Lennon-McCartney composition that the Stones recorded in 1963.
The gesture came after the Rolling Stones had performed the Beatles’ “Come Together” during their own Desert Trip appearance the previous night.
It was an appropriate exchange at a festival built around six enormously influential acts. Desert Trip’s opening weekend brought together Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and the Who, with roughly 75,000 people attending the first night.
From 1958 to “FourFiveSeconds”
McCartney’s set also demonstrated just how much musical history he could fit into one performance.
He reached all the way back to “In Spite of All the Danger,” recorded in 1958 during his pre-Beatles days with the Quarrymen, while also performing “FourFiveSeconds,” his much more recent collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West.
Between those two ends of his career came songs including “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Love Me Do,” “Blackbird,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Band on the Run,” “Let It Be,” “Live and Let Die” and “Hey Jude.”
The complete performance stretched to roughly three dozen songs, covering Beatles, Wings and solo material rather than concentrating on a single period of McCartney’s career.
He also recalled the Beatles’ early recording days before “Love Me Do,” telling the crowd that he could still hear the nervousness in his voice on the recording.
Neil Young joins McCartney for a remarkable Beatles moment
One of Desert Trip’s biggest surprises arrived when Neil Young, who had performed earlier that evening, returned to join McCartney.
Together they performed “A Day in the Life,” before moving into John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” The crowd joined the refrain, turning the collaboration into a huge communal singalong.
Young stayed for “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?,” adding lead guitar to the Beatles track.
After Young departed, McCartney affectionately thanked his friend before continuing through a final stretch of classics.
One concert, decades of memories
By the time McCartney reached his encore, the performance had become something larger than a conventional festival set.
“I Wanna Be Your Man” and “Helter Skelter” were followed by the Abbey Road sequence of “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End,” closing a concert that had traveled from McCartney’s earliest recording years to his then-recent collaborations.
Yet among all those famous songs, the quieter dedications carried particular weight.
In one night, McCartney remembered Linda through “Maybe I’m Amazed,” celebrated Nancy with “My Valentine,” honored George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, nodded to the Rolling Stones and shared a stage with Neil Young.
For an artist whose songs have become part of millions of other people’s memories, Desert Trip offered something more personal: McCartney using those same songs to revisit the people and relationships woven through his own life.