Lots of people have recurring bad dreams about mundane but stressful obligations like work or school.

Some of us wake up with a start after having nightmares about missing a deadline or having a professor give a surprise exam.

Paul McCartney has stress dreams about The Beatles. One in particular has haunted him for decades. He described it in a recent interview with Mojo.

"We're playing a dreadful gig somewhere and the audience are walking out. "That happens a lot," McCartney described about the nightmare in which everything goes wrong during the set.

He says he tries to get out of the dream by focusing on the fact that he's again with his late-bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison.

While some fans may be surprised that one as revered as a former Beatle has such human trifles as bad dreams, McCartney emphasizes that he's much more than just a musician.

While he generally can control what happens on stage, there's much more to life than work — and most of the things in his life beyond music are outside of McCartney's purview.

"Sometimes in your life, you're not a god on Olympus," McCartney said. "You're a real person walking 'round the streets. I'm a grandfather, a father, a husband, and in that package there's no guarantee that every minute's gonna go right. In fact, quite the opposite."

McCartney says he explores life's troubles in the music on his new album, Egypt Station, due out September 7.





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