Paul McCartney on Monday releases his new album,
Ecce Cor Meum
, completing a work that was interrupted by the death of his wife Linda.
Her death from breast cancer in 1998 so devastated the former Beatle that he could not write or play music for two years, McCartney, 64, said in an interview with Culture, a magazine of The Sunday Times.
It was the only time in his life, he said, when he was unable to use music to seek the refuge and therapy he needed to escape adversity.
"Life beats you down occasionally and when it does, you just have to not try. But I am the eternal optimist. No mater how rough it gets, there's always light somewhere. The rest of the sky may be cloudy, but that little bit of blue draws me on," he said.
"Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart)," which is being released by (EMI Classics), is the pop star's fourth classical album. McCartney said he loved choirs as a boy, even though he failed to make it into the choir at Liverpool cathedral. "I was not musical enough, obviously," he said with a smile.
He also said his musical education in school was paltry. "We'd all go into the classroom, about 30 Liverpool boys, and the teacher would put on a record - Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, something like that - then he'd leave the room. So, of course, we just took it off, posted a guard on the door, got the ciggies and the cards out, and when he came back, we put the record back on for the last couple of bars. He'd go, `What did you think of that?' And we were like, `Oh really good, sir. Fabulous.'"
{{/usCountry}}He also said his musical education in school was paltry. "We'd all go into the classroom, about 30 Liverpool boys, and the teacher would put on a record - Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, something like that - then he'd leave the room. So, of course, we just took it off, posted a guard on the door, got the ciggies and the cards out, and when he came back, we put the record back on for the last couple of bars. He'd go, `What did you think of that?' And we were like, `Oh really good, sir. Fabulous.'"
{{/usCountry}}The interviewer said McCartney barred any questions about the singer's divorce from his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney. The couple announced their separation in May after four years of marriage. They have begun divorce proceedings in an increasingly acrimonious split. They have a 2-year-old daughter, Beatrice.