Sir Paul McCartney has left fans in tears after performing the Beatles final ever song during his tour.
The music legend, 82, is currently on his Got Back tour, which is set to travel across South America, the UK and Europe over the coming weeks.
Ahead of the shows, Sir Paul teased a montage of his tour preparation, which included getting ready to take to the stage with the song Now and Then, which was created with AI.
The song was performed for the first time during the opening night at Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The track features vocals from John Lennon that was discovered on an old cassette tape and ‘extricated’ with artificial intelligence to create the song.
This AI-aided song has proven an emotional addition to the Beatles discography as Sir Paul duets with the late Lennon, singing: ‘Now and then/I miss you’.
It was a half-written, seemingly lost song from 1977 which Sir Paul and Ringo worked together to revive, along with guitar tracks from George Harrison, who died in 2001.
A video of the performance was later shared on social media, with many fans sharing how emotional it left them.
‘I was there, I cried a lot with this song,’ eduardocuna8170 commented on YouTube.
‘Can’t hold back my tears. Seeing Paul singing the last Beatles song live puts the perfect bookend to my lifelong love of those four boys from Liverpool,’ redsvt98 shared.
‘So moving. What a delight and privilege to hear Paul McCartney sing this live in 2024,’ josephdevlin7528 added.
Others said they were ‘crying their hearts out’.
Ahead of the release, Sir Paul had to clear up that nothing had been ‘artificially or synthetically’ created after some confusion around the track.
The star explained how they simply ‘cleaned up some existing recordings’ in a ‘process which has gone on for years.’
It was said the song was originally scrapped because there were missing verses and Harrison dubbed it ‘rubbish’ during previous recording attempts.
Now and Then was well received upon its release last year, despite initial AI concerns, and it seems the former Beatle plans to debut it live for the first time.
Until now it has never been performed on stage, presumably with Lennon’s vocals on a backing track as Sir Paul sings and plays guitar live.
Other iconic Beatles songs featured in the short video were I’ve Got A Feeling, Helter Skelter, and Carry That Weight.
‘From the rehearsal room… to a city near you 🎸,’ the Blackbird icon wrote. ‘Here’s a taste of what’s to come, as we get ready to rock and roll on the 2024 GOT BACK tour!’
The Got Back tour kicks off in Montevideo, Uruguay, on October 1 before heading through South America and on to Spain, France, and the UK.
Sir Paul will play two gigs at the Manchester Co-op Live venue on December 14 and 15 before wrapping the tour at London’s O2 Arena on December 18 and 19.
The dates caused a little friction with Liverpudlian fans as the legend was accused of ‘snubbing’ his hometown with the sparse dates.
However, some fans argued that Manchester isn’t too far from Liverpool and worthy of a gig given it was in 2011 when he last performed in the city.
