Paul McCartney Explains Taylor Swift Wedding Gig: 'She Asked Me to Do It'

Paul McCartney says Taylor Swift personally asked him to perform at her wedding to Travis Kelce — and picked the song herself. The Beatle revealed the backstory during his appearance Friday on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", his first public comments on the ceremony since guests confirmed the performance months ago.

"She asked me to do it," McCartney told Kimmel. Swift also requested the specific song: the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand," a track McCartney had not played live since performing it with the band in 1964.

What happened on stage?

McCartney performed the 1963 single at Swift and Kelce's wedding, held at Madison Square Garden. Swift joined him onstage during the performance — at McCartney's urging.

"I said, 'You should sing along, and you should sing it to your man,'" McCartney told Kimmel. It remains unclear whether the two actually duetted on the song, which Rolling Stone has called "the perfect Beatles wedding song."

Guests had stayed tight-lipped about the ceremony in the months since it took place, making McCartney's interview the most detailed public account so far.

What else did McCartney discuss?

The Kimmel appearance covered several other projects and moments from McCartney's recent calendar:

• An upcoming special edition of The Boys of Dungeon Lane
• His first-ever duet with Ringo Starr
• The recent Wings documentary Man on the Run
• The night Larry David refused to sing along to "Hey Jude" at a McCartney concert

The Larry David story drew the sharpest exchange of the interview. David explained his stance himself in a June 2026 interview with Kimmel: "You think I'm gonna 'Na na na'? What kind of person do you think I am."

"I talked to him about it afterward. I said, 'How come Larry?' He said, 'I didn't want to do it.' So he didn't do it," McCartney recalled. Asked whether he would ever invite David to another show, McCartney gave a one-word answer: "Never."

The McCartney appearance gives Swift and Kelce's wedding its first on-the-record confirmation of how the performance came together — and confirms that a song untouched on stage since 1964 got its revival by direct request from the bride.