Paul McCartney Turns a Spry 70 Today, Thanks to Meditation, a Vegetarian Diet and Three Hour Gigs

Paul McCart­ney turns 70 today, and he’s look­ing a whole lot more spry than some of his con­tem­po­raries. (Hel­lo Kei­th Richards!) What’s the key to his longevi­ty? It starts with putting on three hour shows. He recent­ly told one news­pa­per, “I’ve been hav­ing car­dio-vas­cu­lar exer­cise for years but it’s on stage. I can’t believe I do a three-hour show with­out tak­ing a breath.”

You could also trace his dura­bil­i­ty back to lifestyle choic­es made in the 1960s. Above, McCart­ney explains to David Lynch how he took up tran­scen­den­tal med­i­ta­tion when the Bea­t­les met Mahar­ishi Mahesh Yogi through George Har­ri­son and his wife in 1967. Famous­ly, The Bea­t­les trav­eled to India in ’68 to study TM at the Mahar­ishi’s ashram. The trip did­n’t go well, but McCart­ney stuck with the med­i­ta­tion. Below, we also give you McCart­ney extolling the virtues of a veg­e­tar­i­an diet, some­thing he took up decades ago. The clip comes from a longer video he shot for PETA, a non-prof­it he has sup­port­ed for years..