My hero:
Paul McCartney
by Alan
Johnson
The look, the voice even the left-handedness: I wanted to be Paul McCartney – and he's brought nothing but joy into my life
I've never been fickle when it comes to hero worship. My heroes when I was a teenager are my heroes today. George Orwell, Rodney Marsh (the balletic QPR forward) and Paul McCartney.
With Orwell and Marsh it was an admiration for their skills that began with Animal Farm and that amazing goal I saw Rodney score in the League Cup final of 1967. With Paul it was everything. The look, the voice even the left-handedness. I wanted to be Paul McCartney in a way that I never wanted to be my other heroes. Sure, he could over do the bobbing, thumbs-up bonhomie, but that was a minor irritation. From "Paperback Writer" to "She's Leaving Home", "Drive My Car" to "For No One" and post-Beatles, from "Maybe I'm Amazed" to "Figure of Eight" he's brought nothing but joy into my life – despite the trauma of standing in front of the mirror as a 15-year-old trying to get my fringe to lie the way Paul's did on the sleeve of Beatles For Sale.
Paul smiled at my lyric. The worship intensified on the most important day of my ministerial career.
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