Paul McCartney Stands by Pride Flag, Debuts “Help!” at Santa Barbara Bowl ‘Got Back’ Tour Kickoff

It was a “you had to be there” moment, and for about 4,000 lucky lottery ticket holders at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday night, they were. The occasion was a surprise, one-off performance by Sir Paul McCartney and his longtime touring band, a dress rehearsal for the Beatle’s 2025 Got Back tour, officially kicking off in Palm Springs’ Acrisure Arena on Monday night.

As such it was an opportunity to witness McCartney, 83, interpret his hits in about as intimate a venue as imaginable, an outdoor amphitheater carved into a hillside of the coastal town. So quaint was the setting, parking was located at the nearby high school.

The result was something of a quasi-religious experience for all in attendance, a rock ‘n’ roll revival with nothing less than modern music’s God at the pulpit. Spied among the crowd: Adam Levine and wife Behati Prinsloo with their three young children in tow.

There were moments throughout the evening of pinch-me-this-can’t-be-happening joy and surprise, and they began at the very top, when McCartney — looking 20 years younger than his natural age, and in astoundingly good voice, despite what online nitpickers and naysayers might claim — launched into the Beatles‘ “Help!,” what’s generally considered a John Lennon song that McCartney has never before played in full.

That it was a no-phones performance, requiring guests to lock away devices in Yondr pouches as they wound their way up to the arena, only added to the bottled-lightning excitement of the show. Scanning the crowd several times throughout the evening, the only things glowing were the beaming faces of the thousands of starry-eyed McCartney-ites in attendance. “Nobody’s got a phone tonight,” McCartney noted at one point and then nodded approvingly. “It’s better.”

There were love letters a-plenty that night, including a dedication of his 2012 solo song “My Valentine” to McCartney’s third and current wife, Nancy Shivell; the tune came to him during an early courtship date in Morocco.

While promoters stressed that the show did not feature the full-scale production of the coming arena tour, it did feature a good deal of laser lighting and projection, including, rather inexplicably, some pre-recorded video of Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman interpreting lyrics with sign language, or some variation thereof. Depp then picked up a guitar and strummed along to McCartney’s live guitar solo.

The artistic choice of featuring Depp was the sole head-scratcher of the evening — but McCartney’s loyalty to the Pirates of the Caribbean star though his various legal and reputational travails appears to be as solid as Norwegian wood.

Later, the love letters were directed at Beatles bandmates and creative collaborators. To hear McCartney tell Beatles stories before launching into some of the most beloved and familiar melodies ever written is a gift, and the lucky few in attendance hung on his every word.

“We’re gonna take you back in time,” McCartney offered at one point. “To a little town in Northern England called Liverpool, where four young men formed a group.

“And did rather well,” McCartney added with characteristic understatement.

That led to a salute to producer George Martin — “a smart, funny man,” McCartney recalled —and a rendition of the Beatles’ debut single, 1962’s “Love Me Do,” which reached No. 1 in the U.S. two years later. Lennon’s familiar harmonica line was replicated by Paul “Wix” Wickens, McCartney’s keyboardist and musical director since 1989.

Alongside Wickens, McCartney was backed by the Hot City Horns brass section and his venerable band, including guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist-bassist Brian Ray, and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., the last of whom performed a delightful rendition of the Macarena on “Dance Tonight,” a 2007 single from McCartney’s Memory Almost Full solo album.

“That’s all the choreography in the show tonight,” McCartney joked.

But McCartney is a one-man-band in his own right, and would play the upright piano, the grand piano, the mandolin, the electric and acoustic guitars and his trademark Hofner bass before the night was through.

“When we first got [to America],” McCartney later noted, “you couldn’t hear our music for the girls’ screams. Give me a Beatles scream!” The audience responded — though one sensed that despite the Santa Barbara Bowl’s enthusiasm, nothing would ever compare to the ear-piercing decibels of peak Beatlemania. “Imagine trying to play through that!” McCartney added, still visibly amused and a bit shell-shocked at their Ed Sullivan Show-era American reception.

By the time McCartney took center stage alone to perform “Blackbird” with a guitar (he later admitted relief at having not “messed it up … it’s got a lot of changes!”), the momentousness of the occasion had fully set in. And he hadn’t even yet played “Let It Be,” which he explained came to him in a dream in which his departed mother told him no to worry about struggles he’d been having with alcohol; led the crowd in a rousing sing-along of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” that could have felt just as easily at home in a crowded Liverpudlian public house; or blown the roof off the roofless joint with an explosive rendition of “Live and Let Die,” his 1973 James Bond mega-banger.

There was also “Now and Then,” the “new” Beatles song that came together through A.I. technology and was accompanied by a (possibly A.I.-assisted?) psychedelic animation that brought together young Beatles, aging Beatles, deceased Beatles, living Beatles, all as if to say, “We’re still together, wherever we are, and we’ll never be apart.” The sentiment provided an effective emotional punch. “Thank you, John, for writing that beautiful song,” McCartney said.

Even at 83, McCartney’s vocals come fully alive when he’s belting, as evidenced in a six-song encore that included “Helter Skelter” and the “Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight”/”The End” suite that closes Abbey Road. Fittingly, “The End” was the last song ever recorded by all four Beatles, and the songs were accompanied by band members waving giant flags: a Stars and Stripes, a Union Jack and —take note, America — a LGBTQ+ rainbow flag.

“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make,” McCartney sang, in what would become one of his most indelible lyrics. If that’s the case, he’s entitled to all of it.

Setlist for Paul McCartney at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Sept. 26, 2025:

Help!
Coming Up
Got to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
Getting Better
Let ‘Em In
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
I’ve Just Seen a Face
Love Me Do
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Now and Then
Lady Madonna
Jet
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Get Back
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude

Encore:
I’ve Got a Feeling
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

“Got Back” tour dates for 2025:

September 29 — Palm Desert, CA — Acrisure Arena
October 4 — Las Vegas, NV — Allegiant Stadium
October 7 — Albuquerque, NM — Isleta Amphitheater
October 11 — Denver, CO — Coors Field
October 14 — Des Moines, IA — Casey’s Center
October 17 — Minneapolis, MN — U.S. Bank Stadium
October 22 — Tulsa, OK — BOK Center
October 29 — New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King Center
November 2 — Atlanta, GA — State Farm Arena
November 3 — Atlanta, GA — State Farm Arena
November 6 — Nashville, TN — The Pinnacle
November 8 — Columbus, OH — Nationwide Arena
November 11 — Pittsburgh, PA — PPG Paints Arena
November 14 — Buffalo, NY — KeyBank Center
November 17 — Montreal, QC — Bell Centre
November 18 — Montreal, QC — Bell Centre
November 21 — Hamilton, ON — TD Coliseum
November 24 — Chicago, IL — United Center
November 25 — Chicago, IL — United Center