Now in its fourth year, Paul McCartney has returned to the United States with the 2025 Got Back Tour, playing a packed-out show at PPG Paints Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the Steel City.
Having seen a show during his 2022 North American leg, getting to see him a second time on the tour (and third overall) is a privilege. You don't know how many more opportunities you'll get to see him.
McCartney, 83, is four years older than the last time he toured the United States, but he's still as spry as ever. He played a near-three-hour show in Pittsburgh, exploring his entire discography from The Beatles to Wings to his solo career.
Now, pretentious McCartney superfans will still be upset by the minimal (but impactful) setlist changes, or the familiar stories he tells about John Lennon, George Harrison, and Jimi Hendrix, or his voice.
Taylor Swift deserves credit for her Eras Tour. It was a testament to her endurance as a performer. But McCartney's career is so special, as he displays in the show.
And yet, McCartney, a titan of the industry, remains the gold standard. He has remained a constant over his near-five-decade-long career, and his Got Back Tour is a celebration of all the changes he has withstood.
At this point, it's clear that McCartney tours for the love of the game. Over the last decade, his shows have become more static, but he still seemingly finds a way to get on the road — especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. He knows time is precious, and he's trying to give fans one more chance to see him.
No, his shows aren't centered around a new album, and yes, his voice isn't anywhere near him at the top of his game. But, frankly, who cares what the idiots say?
Paul McCartney's 2025 Got Back Tour review
Like most McCartney shows over the last decade, he doesn't have an opener. So, he usually makes it to the stage by 8:15. He has usually opened his shows over the last few tours with a Beatles song that Lennon, not himself, sang lead vocals on. This has given fans opportunities to once again hear “Eight Days a Week” and “A Hard Day's Night” live.
In 2025, McCartney debuted a rousing rendition of the Beatles' “Help!” He and his band play it in a fantastic full-band arrangement that mirrors how the Beatles played it, backing vocals and all.
Then came perhaps the biggest swing he took with his 2025 setlists. McCartney and his band launched into a rocking rendition of “Coming Up” from his second self-titled album. It has always been a live standout — the live performance that served as “Coming Up's” B-side was more successful than the A-side — and, after several years, he has finally brought it back as part of the main setlist.
The rest of the opening set mostly mirrored the 2022 shows, aside from “Drive My Car” being played fourth in the set. “Getting Better” and Wings' “Letting Go” remain some of the songs in which McCartney's voice holds up best.
The emotional middle of the show
The emotional highlight of the show begins once McCartney gets on his piano. “My Valentine” has never been one of his strongest love songs; it was written for his current wife, Nancy Sullivan. But a different song, like “My Love,” which was written about Linda McCartney, would fit better.
Nonetheless, he makes up for it by playing two of Wings' strongest songs, “Let ‘Em In” and “Nineteen Hundred and Eight-Five.” The former is aided by the presence of the Hot City Horns. “Nineteen Hundred and Eight-Five” always brings the heat and is a nice jolt of energy amid the slower songs.
Then, he performs his greatest love song in the same piano-led mini-set, “Maybe I'm Amazed.” It's a risky song for him to perform, given how isolated his vocals are in the verses. It risks putting his worn-down voice on full display.
While it'd be disingenuous to act like he still hits every note like he did, even in the early 2000s, he sounded a lot better than in 2022 during this song. His voice didn't crack nearly as much, and “Maybe I'm Amazed” is so powerful.
Is Paul McCartney's voice that bad?
Credit to McCartney's touring band, who have remained by his side since 2002. Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Paul “Wix” Wickens, and Abe Laboriel Jr. pick up the slack when McCartney needs it.
They are a tight group, rarely making mistakes, and their backing vocals soar. They cover up any imperfections that McCartney has. However, unlike the 2022 shows, which were mostly in stadiums, the 2025 Got Back Tour has mostly taken place in arenas. So, McCartney's voice is mixed a bit better, so you can actually hear it. It no longer appears they're hiding him.
McCartney made the most noticeable mistakes, like starting “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” early or slipping his way across his fretboard playing “Blackbird.” Still, he's 83 years old, and if anyone deserves slack, it's him.
Yes, his voice has declined over the last 20 years. It's really hard to fault McCartney when he has been touring as heavily as he has since his return to touring in 1989.
Naturally, your voice is going to change by the time you reach your 80s. Some artists, like Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and even Paul Simon, have lucked out and maintained their voices in their 70s and 80s.
However, McCartney isn't playing intimate acoustic shows at the Royal Albert Hall. He's still selling out arenas and stadiums, and most of his setlist is made up of sing-alongs that everyone knows. If he doesn't sing every word of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” or “Hey Jude,” does it matter when the crowd ends up singing all of it, too?
Even when McCartney was solo, like when he played “Here Today” and “Blackbird,” he sounded a lot better than three years ago. What his voice lacks in power, he makes up for in passion.
More Wings, please
If we're ever fortunate enough to get another McCartney tour, it'd be great to hear a greater emphasis on his Wings career. While it'd be insane to expect a setlist overhaul on the fourth year of the Got Back Tour, it's somewhat surprising he didn't dust off a few more from his Wings career.
After all, he has spent a lot of the year celebrating his second-most successful band. He just released Wings: A Story of a Band on the Run and their second compilation, a box set titled Wings.
Wings' discography only makes up seven of the 35 songs played. So, that's 20% of his setlist being Wings songs. Even then, aside from “Letting Go,” they're all megahits people likely associate with McCartney more than Wings, like “Band on the Run” and “Live and Let Die.”
While any Wings fan would love to hear deeper cuts like “Magneto and Titanium Man” or “You Gave Me the Answer” make the show, you have to take what you can get. McCartney reintroduced “Jet” — one of my favorite Wings songs — into the setlist the night after his Syracuse show in 2022. So, despite seeing him in 2015, when his setlist was even more varied than it is today, yours truly had never heard “Jet” live.
Beatles deep cuts
It's fair to say most associate McCartney with The Beatles. So, that explains why the songs by the Fab Four make up 22 of the 35 songs played. One thing the 2025 run of shows is missing is a definitive Beatles deep cut. In 2022, he played “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” and the following year, he started playing “She's a Woman,” a proper deep cut.
To his credit, he does play “Now and Then,” The Beatles' “final” song. The song began as a John Lennon demo that the surviving three Beatles wanted to finish for their Anthology box set (like they did with “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love”). However, they left “Now and Then” unfinished, and McCartney and Ringo Starr would complete it in 2023.
He also performs “In Spite of All the Danger,” which was recorded by the Quarrymen, the group McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison were part of before Starr joined them. It's performed during one of the highlights of the show. McCartney and his band gather at the center of the stage. The backdrop is an old country house, and it's like a shindig (especially during the folky “I've Just Seen a Face”).
The funny thing is, some of the songs McCartney plays wouldn't likely be among Beatles fans' favorites. Aside from being able to use trippy visuals, what is McCartney's affinity for “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”?
Should you see Paul McCartney's Got Back Tour in 2025?
It's hard not to recommend that someone not see McCartney, even at 83. Make no mistake; these shows are not an exercise for superfans to showcase their knowledge of the deep cuts.
Instead, it's a crowd-pleasing show that only McCartney can deliver. Swift impressively played a three-hour show called the Eras Tour. And while she explored her entire discography, McCartney's career spans over half a century. So, he gets the edge in that regard.
Speaking as someone who has gotten to see him three times now, do it while you can. He talks about not telling Lennon that he “loved” him while he was alive. If you're a fan of The Beatles or McCartney, you should see him while you can.
Time is limited, but McCartney's legacy will live on forever. He may be 83, but he is still the best touring artist out there. Only he can deliver such an epic show. It's full of fun and heart.
So, see him while he's “Here Today.”
Paul McCartney's 2025 Got Back Tour will continue through Nov. 25.
