Paul McCartney had gotten his terminal diagnosis a few months ago, right in the middle of his latest world tour.
He was the last of the 4 that remained alive.
His first question, in a very private room to his medical team was:
“Did my becoming a vegetarian exacerbate the progression of the cancer?”
Lead Doctor:
“Yes, of course.”
He loved touring so much. He was going to miss it.
Paul was a planner since he was young. His celebrity and legend status did not come by accident. So planning the end of his life down to the minute came naturally. He wanted to die on stage, singing to a worldwide audience. Die with his boots on as they used to say.
He worked with doctors to meticulously plan his passing. Cancer would not be controlling the moment of his death.
For a few weeks, he thought long and hard on what his last song performed live was going to be. Although he went through his entire catalog, he couldn’t find a fitting last song to sing live so he wrote a new one.
His last concert date was only known to his family, doctors and team members who needed to know. The total number in the know was only 8, including Sir Paul.
The venue would be the field of St. Peter’s church, Liverpool, where he first met John on July 6, 1957.
So Paul got to work on the last song he would ever write and ever sing live.
And before he knew it, the night of his last concert was upon him.
The concert went exactly as planned. Paul saw many old faces in the audience from his youth and that made him so happy. He said hello to them by name all during the show.
The doctors gave him a chemical cocktail before he went on.
Paul remembered when Linda’s water broke when she was carrying their first child, Mary.
The doctor had said: “No stopping this baby coming now!”
This feeling was the same once he had that chemical cocktail in his belly.
He whispered to himself with a sly child-like grin on his lips:
“No stopping my demise coming now…”
When he first saw John singing, on the back of a truck, in the field of the church, John was singing Come Go With Me by the Del Vikings. He didn’t know the words so he made up some of his own. Paul thought this was extremely clever.
Paul recalled in an interview decades ago:
“I remember John singing a song called ‘Come Go With Me.’ He’d heard it on the radio. He didn’t really know the verses, but he knew the chorus. The rest he just made up himself. I just thought, ‘Well, he looks good, he’s singing well and he seems like a great lead singer to me.’ Of course, he had his glasses off, so he really looked suave. I remember John was good.”
The stage went dark for a few moments, and when the lights came back up Paul was sitting on what looked like a comfy leather chair, one you might see in a middle class family’s living room.
He was holding his right handed Epiphone Texan, the same one he had written Yesterday with.
He sang Yesterday as he thought it was fitting to be his second to last song he would ever play. It was the most popular song he had ever written.
The doctors told him he would have about 8-10 minutes once he felt the chemical cocktail taking effect. They told him once he felt that, to make sure he shifted to his comfy chair so he would simply lie back when he died instead of falling limp to the stage.
So there Paul sat, looking out at the crowd of his people from Liverpool. He made sure that only Scousers were invited and admission was free.
He closed his eyes and breathed in the air of his youth. He loved that this air would be the first and last to enter his lungs.
He thought of all those he had lost over the years. He was elated that he was finally going to see them all again in 8-10 minutes.
With Yesterday sung he began to sing his final live song. No one had heard it but him. It was called: Kingdom Come (Here I Come Home) and it was a simple acoustic number.
Paul said:
“There were stories many years ago that I had died and I was replaced with an imposter.
I didn’t.
I promise you I can only die once and it will be very clear when I do to everyone present and watching around the world.
This is my last song. There will be no encore.”
Paul singing and strumming.
My kingdom come, Here I come
Here I come home
I think of your faces, when I am alone
Now my face is one you can only see,
in pictures and movies and memories
But I will be there to welcome you home when kingdom come
And I will not be alone
I had so much love from everyone
I hope the love I made was equal to the love I took
This is not the last setting of my sun
Just a new chapter in my life’s book
Linda, Richie, George and John,
My mom (Mother Mary), dad and siblings
All others who passed I relied upon
I always stood on your shoulders
And you kept me singing
And now kingdom come, here I come home
Kingdom come has come for me
It’s threshold now a footstep away
My soul will now will be free
And me and the lads will forever play
My love……
Paul slumped back into the leather chair, his quitar sliding down to his lap. His now dead wide eyes stared at the Liverpool sky.
He didn’t get to the last verse, but it wasn’t his favorite anyway.
Paul Is Dead.
