Sir Paul McCartney almost ended his career with The Beatles because of stage fright.
The 74-year-old rocker has revealed in the early days of his career he would be "physically sick" before going stage and at one concert at Wembley in London he nearly gave it all up for good because it was so "painful".
Asked by a fan on his website – www.paulmccartney.com – what his biggest fear is, he admitted: "Performing, it was always the idea that the audience didn’t like you and you had to prove yourself.
"I think that’s why a lot of people get stage fright and get nervous. You think, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna be terrible, they hate me, and it’s all terrible.’
"And so I think that was one of the earliest fears. I remember nearly giving it all up when we were doing a concert in Wembley – which was a Poll-Winners concert – in the really early days of The Beatles.
"And I remember feeling physically sick with a knot in my stomach thinking, ‘I should give this up, this is just too painful, what am I doing?’ I got over it.
"And as you can see I didn’t give it up! So that’s two different kinds of fears."
One of the ‘Hey Jude’ hitmaker’s biggest fears is that no one will turn up to his shows, but he has learnt over the years that his fans admire him so his pre-show nerves are "not too bad" now.
Asked if he still suffers from nerves before going on stage, he said: "Not too bad. What I do is I always say to my promoter when a tour is coming up: ‘Put one show on sale and see how it goes’.
"And he’ll ring me back and say, ‘It’s sold out! Twenty minutes!’ So I’ve got to assume that they like me.
"So it gives you a confidence and I think I can probably relax, they probably like me. And it means you can enjoy the show more."
Paul McCartney almost quit The Beatles because of stage fright
