Andrew Watt has worked with a long list of major artists, but even he could barely process the moment when Paul McCartney came into his orbit. In a new interview with The Telegraph, Watt said the experience felt so unreal that he literally had to ask for a slap just to convince himself it was happening. He said McCartney was coming to his Beverly Hills home for tea, and the whole thing left him feeling like he was inside a dream.
Watt explained that he grew up knowing every Beatles song and studying every Beatles chord, so having McCartney in his kitchen was beyond anything he could have imagined as a kid. He described the encounter as the kind of moment that made no sense on paper — “just saying that sounds like a fake statement,” as he put it — and said he felt “the luckiest” to be in a room with people who had already changed his life before he ever met them.
The producer also said that working with McCartney quickly became more than a casual meeting. Instead of simply sitting down for tea, the two started talking, picking up guitars, and building music together. Watt compared the experience to being a student in college, saying McCartney’s level of musicianship and studio instinct felt like “mastery on another level.” He also said he made a conscious effort not to let the fear get in the way of the sessions, because otherwise McCartney could have done the whole thing himself.
That collaboration has grown into something much bigger. Watt has played a central role in McCartney’s new album, The Boys of Dungeon Line, while also producing the Rolling Stones’ upcoming record, Foreign Tongues. Far Out notes that Watt’s work with those two icons has made him part of two of this summer’s biggest releases, even though he still sounds almost disbelief every time he talks about it.
The roots of the McCartney partnership go back to April 2021, when the two first met in Los Angeles. According to the Paul McCartney Project, McCartney’s manager arranged the meeting after Watt was named Producer of the Year at the Grammys, and the first encounter quickly turned into a recording session. Watt even bought a left-handed guitar in advance. The pair initially recorded “As You Lie There,” and McCartney later recalled that he had just gone over for tea before the day turned into actual songwriting.
McCartney has since spoken warmly about Watt, even if his first impression was that the producer was “a bit pushy.” But he added that pushiness is not a bad thing in a producer, because it usually means enthusiasm and a real desire to keep the record moving. In a 2021 conversation, McCartney said Watt was exciting to work with, and described the first session as one of those chance meetings that unexpectedly becomes a song.
Watt later recalled that once McCartney came back the next day, the sessions stretched over several more days and produced music they both loved. In his 2025 Howard Stern interview, Watt said the experience was one of the most amazing of his life and said he was fascinated by how easily McCartney could move between instruments and ideas. He also remembered being so nervous before that first visit that he nearly lost sleep over it.
What makes the story land is not just the celebrity of it all, but how human Watt sounds in the middle of it. He is not pretending to be cool about sharing a room with a Beatle. He sounds like a fan who accidentally got invited into the room he grew up dreaming about — and then stayed there long enough to make real music.
