Paul McCartney Meets Two Of The Little Rock Nine Heroes That Inspired ‘Blackbird’

Saturday night’s Paul McCartney concert in Little Rock featured thrills galore for the sold-out Verizon Arena crowd, but the evening’s biggest moment ended up occurring backstage.

McCartney met Little Rock Nine heroes Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford who blazed a trail and faced intense adversity for enrolling in the all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957. According to McCartney, their battle for civil rights would serve as inspiration for the Beatles classic “Blackbird.” The recording artist cited the pair as “pioneers of the civil rights movement” and proudly shared his picture with them on social media.

Naturally, the song made an appearance during Macca’s Arkansas performance. The knighted Beatle noted for the audience how Little Rock’s place in the battle for civil rights brought the song into existence.

“Way back in the Nineteen-Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock. We would notice this on the news back in England, so it’s a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started. Really. We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through struggles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those struggles, it might just help them a little bit, and that’s this next one.”

Video of McCartney’s “Blackbird” performance and speech ushering it in can be viewed by hitting play on that magic rectangle at the top of this post.

(via Rolling Stone)

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