Paul McCartney Criticizes 3-Hour Concerts, Says Beatles Did 30-Minute Shows: ‘I Blame Bruce Springsteen’

Springsteen’s concerts often last four hours, while Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has recently made headlines for its 3+ hour run time

Concerts run much longer than they used to, according to Paul McCartney.

Earlier this week, the legendary singer-songwriter appeared on Conan O’Brien’s Needs a Friend podcast and spoke about how he blames Bruce Springsteen for normalizing concerts running over three hours — something The Beatles never did.

“These days, pretty much there’s the main act and there might be a warm-up act,” said McCartney, 81, recalling that in the 1960s, there were “a lot of people on the bill because nobody did long.”

“Now, people will do three or four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen — I’ve told him so, I said, ‘It’s your fault,'” continued the 18-time Grammy winner, who often performs for nearly three hours himself.

However, that was never The Beatles’ approach. “You can’t now do an hour. We used to do a half hour. That was The Beatles’ thing – half an hour, and we got paid for it,” added McCartney.

He explained that the group’s shows used to be shorter “because there were a lot of people on the bill,” noting that comedians would often open with a four-minute set: “They would do four, and so we thought, ‘Well, half an hour. That’s epic.'”