Paul McCartney Says Rock Hall Boss Broke His Induction Promise

Paul McCartney was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1999. But a previously unpublished interview from 2015 reveals that he was not happy that it took that long.

Journalist Joe Hagan spoke with the legendary Beatle for more than an hour in March of 2015 as he was researching Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, a book about the Rolling Stone founder that was released in late 2017. As he details in an introduction for the interview, which was recently published by Vanity Fair, only a fraction of their conversation made it into Sticky Fingers.

Why Paul McCartney Was Upset

Though the Beatles were inducted into the Rock Hall in 1988 and McCartney was a regular participant and guest for the ceremonies in the early years (and more recently, also showed up for Ringo Starr’s induction in 2015 and gave the speech in 2021 when Foo Fighters were added to the Rock Hall), he notes that he was surprised when he got a phone call from Jann Wenner, who wanted him to give the speech to induct his longtime bandmate and friend John Lennon.

He initially accepted the invite and then had second thoughts, realizing that he himself wasn’t going to be part of the 1994 class of inductees for his own solo work.

“I got back to him and said, ‘Well, wait a minute. What about me? Maybe I’ll do John, and then maybe I should go in,” McCartney recalled in the interview. “And it was like, ‘Oh no, we can’t do that.’ In all my dealings with him, it’s never up to Jann. It’s up to these other people down the corridor somewhere. He happens to have “owner-editor” on his door, but they’re responsible for things?”

What Wenner promised instead, was that McCartney would have his own moment and be inducted in 1995. “I said, “Okay.” And I bought the deal. Next year came around [and nothing happened],” he continued. “So it was like, ‘Can you ring Jann? What’s going on? I don’t appear to be in it.’ F—ing bastards.'”

The Complex Relationship of Paul McCartney and Jann Wenner

Though Wenner has said he didn’t remember making that deal with McCartney, it was the latest thread in what he found to be a complicated web involving the publisher, who he’d always perceived to be more on Lennon’s side.

“The thing about John Lennon and McCartney was we were always equal. But, of course, once John got murdered, he became the martyr—the Buddy Holly, the James Dean character—because of the atrocity,” he explained. “So a revisionism started to go on. And Yoko [Ono] certainly helped it. Jann was a big part of that. So that naturally colored my thinking.”

“So none of these things endeared me to him. And it was always, ‘It’s not me.,'” he added. “Eventually I did creep in there, and my daughter Stella wore a t-shirt [that said], ‘About f—ing time.'”

Wenner had a reduced role with the Hall in recent years and was quickly removed from the organization’s board in 2023 after controversial comments about female and Black artists were published.

What’s Paul McCartney Doing Now?

The songwriter remains involved with a flurry of projects, including most recently, Man on the Run, the documentary which was directed by filmmaker Morgan Neville. It focuses on McCartney’s post-Beatles career in the ’70s, particularly how he created his next group, Wings, and the evolution of that band and his ongoing musical pursuits.

After touring extensively between 2022 and 2025 with his ongoing Got Back trek, McCartney appears to be taking a well-deserved break from the road this year (so far). But fans can stay busy with the documentary, which recently landed on Amazon Prime.

There’s plenty to read and listen to as well, with Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, his book about his time with the group — and Wings, the first-ever Wings anthology. Both arrived in early November of last year.

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