Paul McCartney and Wings may have disbanded long ago, but Paul McCartney and Red Wings and Penguins are still alive and well.
Sure enough, The Beatles legend and all-around music icon Sir Paul McCartney has some ties to the NHL — in the form of two stickers placed strategically on one of his most famous guitars.
So why exactly is McCartney repping the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins? As expected, there’s a cool story behind this one.
It started in the 1970s, when a member of the stage crew in Detroit thought it would be fun to present McCartney with a Red Wings sticker as an ode to his band, Paul McCartney and Wings, as well as to the city in which he was performing that night. Sure enough, Sir Paul placed the sticker on his guitar.
But not just any guitar. That Red Wings sticker became part of the iconic acoustic guitar on which McCartney had previously composed and recorded the famous song Yesterday.
He still uses that same guitar when playing the song live, as demonstrated, um, yesterday, during his concert in Columbus, attended by our own Elliotte Friedman.
But what about that Penguins sticker, just above it?
Not to be outdone by a hockey rival, Penguins president David Morehouse and mayor of Pittsburgh at the time, Luke Ravenstahl, presented McCartney with a Penguins sticker after the musician christened the brand new CONSOL Energy Center in August 2010 and prior to Act Two the following night.
Sure enough, when the time came for Yesterday to be performed, there was the Penguins sticker — and it’s been there ever since.
While we’re not sure if McCartney was presented with a Columbus Blue Jackets sticker, the team did welcome McCartney to the city.
