Sir Paul McCartney continues to perform so he doesn't have to think about death.
The 79-year-old Beatles legend claimed that composing new music and being in the recording studio helps distract him from thoughts of his own mortality.
He explained: "If I didn't have a new project or challenge to conquer, I can only image I'd start thinking further or deeper about the reality of death and that's not something I want to do, particularly."
However, the 'Penny Lane' hitmaker - who is married to Nancy Shevell and has five children from previous relationships - went on to admit that death isn't something that frightens him, although his awareness of it increases with age.
Speaking in this month's edition of Reader's Digest magazine, he added: "Death won't ever scare me - when you get to my age you have to accept your mortality. But it's still some distance away for me, of that I'm sure. The magical mystery tour rolls on, and for that I'm grateful."
Meanwhile, Paul recently admitted his first songwriting attempt - 'I Lost My Little Girl', which he wrote when he was just 14 - "kind of turned into a therapy session" because it gave him the chance to process his grief over his mother Mary, who passed away in 1956 after suffering an embolism following an operation for breast cancer.
He said: “It kind of turned into a therapy session, because 'I thought I was happily writing a little pop song when I was 14, but if you look at the timing of it I had just lost my mother.
“When you think about that, the song seems to have a much deeper meaning that I hadn't noticed before: the possibility of it being subliminally written about her.
“I've always said 'Let It Be' was written after dreaming of my mum, but some of the lyrics from 'Yesterday' might have been to do with my mum as well.
“Then there were surprising memories that would come out, like when I got into talking about John [Lennon] and was reminded of the hitchhiking trips we'd taken as kids, and with George [Harrison].”
