How Paul McCartney Wound Up Performing at Taylor Swift’s Wedding

Paul McCartney, who performed “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding, has shared some inside details three months after the event — like how he ended up onstage.

Though McCartney’s wedding appearance was reported soon after the July 3 reception at New York City’s famous Madison Square Garden, the Beatle confirmed it himself on Friday’s (Oct. 2) episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“Did you know you were gonna sing going in?” Kimmel asked, getting the scoop for the general public, whose curiosity about the wedding still lingers.

“Yep. She asked me to do it,” McCartney said, verifying that the song he sang was the 1964 Beatles classic “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

“That was her request? Or she asked you to pick a song?” was Kimmel’s next question.

“Yeah, it was, yeah,” McCartney answered, then added that he’d hoped Swift would join in on the performance since she was on the stage already.

“I said, ‘You should sing along. You should sing to…” McCartney recounted, then paused. “Your man.”

Seemingly forgetting the name of Swift’s husband for a moment, after a quick laugh from the audience and a nudge from Kimmel he came back with: “I know. Travis.”

“Seems like reasonable advice,” Kimmel quipped of McCartney’s idea for a live wedding-day collab with Swift, and then wrapped the interview.

Wedding attendees have mostly remained tight-lipped about any specifics from the ceremony and reception, including the bride and groom, who’ve not shared a single wedding portrait.

Swift’s close friend (and “Patient Zero” music video co-star) Dakota Johnson recently gave a simple answer — “no” — when asked whether she thought any photos would ever come out from the day. “She’s surprising, isn’t she?” said BBC Radio 1’s Greg James, who was interviewing Johnson (and who was also a guest at the wedding, after Swift invited him during her last interview with him). “She is. Sneaky girl,” Johnson replied.

Kelce did share some comments about the wedding on his New Heights podcast with brother Jason last month, saying it was a “night out we’ll never forget.” Kelce shared, “Me and Taylor are so thankful for everybody that showed up, from the vows to just seeing everyone, to how much fun we had, throughout the entire evening, and hearing that kind of be relayed through everybody’s stories of the night. And it was just so magical, man. I wish it could’ve lasted even longer than it did. It felt like it just happened in the blink of an eye.”

Of the venue choice, Kelce explained, “We wanted do it somewhere where we could have a very intimate and genuine setting without a lot of distractions. We needed it to be a private feel. MSG went above and beyond to give us that. I can’t thank everybody enough that showed up, but [who] also put the show on.”

See McCartney’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel below. Besides his invite to the wedding, he chats about his grandchildren (“They’re great kids. I did it all!”), the release of The Boys of Dungeon Lane: Special Edition, getting rejected from a Grammys party and more.