Paul McCartney Recalls the 'Fear' of Witnessing the 9/11 Attacks

Paul McCartney was sitting in a plane on the runway of JFK on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, watching as the Twin Towers went up in smoke. Those harrowing memories came flooding back while the former Beatle watched footage of 'The Love We Make,' the documentary that follows his experiences in the aftermath of the attacks leading up to the star-studded Concert for New York City.

"We were at JFK on the tarmac and the pilot just suddenly said, 'We can't take off, we're gonna have to go back to base,'" McCartney recalled while speaking via satellite to the Television Critics Association. "Out of the window, on the right hand side of the airplane, you could see the Twin Towers. First of all you could see one plume of smoke and you could see two shortly thereafter and I said, 'Well, that's an optical illusion... or it's probably just some little fire or something, but it does look pretty serious.'"

After he and the other passengers were ordered off the plane, McCartney said he went to Long Island and watched the events unfold on television. He remembered "wanting to go into New York, but nobody was allowed back in, and while I was sitting out there twiddling my thumbs thinking, 'What to do? Was there any role I could play in this?' The idea came to me that maybe we could do a concert, get something together."

Part of the documentary shows McCartney on the streets of New York, meeting fans and trying to cope with life after the attacks. "The whole mood of the world, of America and New York had changed. There was fear in the air and I had never experienced that in New York," he said. "We were emerging from the fearfulness of the immediate impact, and now you were seeing the emotion releasing through music -- it's one of the reasons I am in music."

That's what ultimately led to the Concert, which featured David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Bill Clinton, Jay-Z,Billy Joel and Elton John. "It was a great feeling," he said of the show. "We actually felt like we were doing a bit of good."

'The Love We Make' will air on Showtime on Sept. 10 at 9PM ET/PT.

Paul McCartney Performs 'Let It Be' at the Concert for New York City


Listen to Paul McCartney's Remastered 'Maybe I'm Amazed'

Follow @Spinner on Twitter | Like Us on Facebook | Sign Up for Our Newsletter
Download Paul McCartney Songs | Buy Paul McCartney Albums