Rock's Royal Family: The Paul McCartney's
I know, you could dispute this. You could argue it is the Lennon or Harrison family. You could say that rock music has no royalty, but then I would argue that the title, Sir, given to exceptional talent by the Queen would be the exception. Let me be clear though, Jesse McCartney is of NO relation to Sir Paul!
In any case, the McCartney family is unique with a variety of talent. Paul is the father of Mary and Stella, but not Heather. Heather was the product of Linda's previous marriage. She was very young in 1969-70 when Paul and Linda married. While we know all about Paul, ad nauseum, his kids who grew up in the 70's-80's, have gone onto and into different fields with varying amounts of success.
Mary McCartney is a photographer and is a mix between Paul and Linda. Like James, success at what she loves to do has proved to fleeting with only periodic amounts of it. She has some shows of her work but making money as a photographer as never been easy. She was married and gave Paul two grandchildren. Then, another, with a boyfriend. The most famous photo of her is on the back of Paul's first solo LP after the Beatles broke up as an infant, She is currently in charge of Paul's MPL Enterprises, in charge of the photo department.
James McCartney is the youngest and until very recently avoided in all ways and manner to be compared to Paul. Can't blame him. He is a talented singer, musician and has his own band. Videos of his performance in Iowa are on YouTube. He is the image of his dad except with blond hair. While he knew his dad was famous, the weight of comparing his own music to The Beatles and beyond was too much. So, until age 30, he kept quiet about his music and worked as a waiter at a pub using a fake last name. No one ever knew he was the son of Sir Paul, even though many told him otherwise. He is promoting his EP with his band. He can sound like Neil Young at times, but does not sound like Paul, though he has a similar vocal range. Paul did play on the EP, but just as bass player. James can play guitar, drums, piano and bass all fairly well. On stage, he seems nervous and has none of the charisma Paul has when interacting with the audience. It is so hard NOT to compare Jame's talent to Paul's. James is talented and has a good voice as Julian and Sean Lennon, John's two sons. It will be interesting to see how James develops now that his first record is out. If history knows well, all of the Beatle kids have released albums and none really have been a major success. Julian, had the most successful LP years ago, only to fade out into obscurity.
Stella McCartney is by far the most successful of the Beatle kids. She is a well known clothes designer with her own line of high end clothes at upper end stores in the US and UK. Like her brother, she has her dad's eyes and silliness in front of the camera. Stella now operates 17 freestanding stores in locations including Manhattan’s Soho, London’s Mayfair, LA’s West Hollywood, Paris’ Palais Royal and Milan, and recently opened doors in Rome and Miami. Her collections are now distributed in over 50 countries through 600 wholesale accounts including specialty shops and department stores. She also has a line of skincare and kids clothes with the McCartney name on it.
Stella was bit by clothes design at age 13, about the same time Paul was bit by rock music and his idol, Elvis, which he initially modeled his voice and style on (as did John). She has two sons and two daughters, all very young.
Heather McCartney, born in 1962, is the eldest and step-daughter to Paul. In the 1980s she dated Billy Idol. She once lived in Mexico to deal with stress and it was there she fell in love with pottery. She then move to the Southwest in the US to learn more pottery techniques and styles. McCartney unveiled a line of houseware products, the Heather McCartney Houseware Collection, supported by Paul and has won awards for her pottery. While success may arrive, to date, it has not developed on the scale wanted. She currently lives on Paul's estate.
While comparing the kids to legends is inevitable, it is hard to tell if success will come to all but Stella, which is in her own world.
