PAUL SAYS HE APPRECIATED TIME OFF DURING RECENT ILLNESS,IS AMASSING SONGS FOR NEW ALBUM

Fans were worried about Paul McCartney‘s health when a recent bout with a virus forced him to postpone a series of tour dates in May and June, but the 72-year-old rock legend admits in a new Rolling Stone Q&A that he actually appreciated getting the unplanned break.

“People say to me, ‘Aw, that must have been terrible for you.’  Well, no, actually,” says Sir Paul.  “No one ever tells me to rest!  It was like summer holidays in school or something.  I thought, ‘Yeah, I can get into that.’”

McCartney tells the magazine that he made good use of his time off, revealing that he “took it really easy at home in England,” read a film script his son-in-law wrote and worked on some new experimental music at his recording studio.

He reveals to Rolling Stone that he came up with some danceable tracks while working with a program called Cubase, as well as with a sequencer he originally used while recording his 1980 solo album McCartney II.

“They were just funky little experimental things, instrumentals,” he says. “The first one I did was kind of African, so I gave it the working title ‘Mombasa.’  The next one was faster, and that one I called ‘Botswana.’”

The former Beatle reports that he’s now amassing material for his next album, some of which are completed and “some that I need to finish.”  McCartney likely won’t have time to focus on the project until he winds down his 2014 tour, which currently is scheduled through an October 30 show in Greensboro, North Carolina.  He says, “[A]t the back of my mind, I’ll be wanting to clear a few months for me to write up the most likely of the songs that I’ve got on the boil and figure out how I want to record them…But I haven’t booked any studio time.  It’s all there as fun for the future.”

Speaking about touring, Sir Paul tells Rolling Stone that, while he realizes he’s not getting any younger, he has no plans to retire from the road yet.

“A lot of people get fed up with life on the road, particularly when you’ve got a really nice home life. But for me, I want it all,” he maintains. “I’ve got a great home life, and I’ve got a great life on the road…and the audiences are just so warm, and the feedback is so good.”

He adds, “People say to me, ‘Don’t you get tired?’  It’s a three-hour show, and I’m on stage every second.  I keep thinking the laws of logic ought to apply and I ought to be really tired — but I’m invigorated.”