Paul McCartney Sees Nothing Wrong With Miley Cyrus' Twerking: "We've Seen Worse Than That!"

Rock icon thinks the pop princess' controversial dance moves aren't anything to be up in arms about

By Josh Grossberg Oct 14, 2013 8:57 PMTags
Paul McCartney, Miley CyrusLloyd Bishop/NBC

The media hysteria over Miley Cyrus' booty-shaking shows no sign of abating. Just ask Paul McCartney.

While making the publicity rounds for his latest album, New, the former Beatle was asked by Sky News to weigh in on the popster's twerk-filled performance six weeks ago at the MTV VMAs and McCartney confessed he's not even sure what all the fuss is about.

"Come on, we've seen worse than that!" the 71-year-old music legend said.

McCartney added that he had no problem letting his 10-year-old daughter watch Cyrus' bump and grind move because in his view it was rather tame.

"I watched it as an experiment to check, but you look at it and you say, 'what's everyone shouting about?' he said. "I think it was only mildly shocking…it wasn't explicit at all."

While Miley has a moptop in her corner, not all of her fellow musicians like what she's put on display lately.

In fact, Cyrus has come under withering attack from Irish crooner Sinéad O'Connor who's penned five open letters to the Twerk Queen, demanding a public apology for purportedly contributing to the bullying of the mentally ill. And indie rocker Sufjan Stevens (playfully) criticized Cyrus for her supposedly bad grammar in one of the tracks off her Bangerz album.

McCartney meanwhile offered up his thoughts in the interview on One Direction and the inevitable Beatles comparison. To which he replied: "I always think it's unfortunate for a band to be called the new Beatles, because it can be the kiss of death."

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

"People expect you to live up to what we did, and we did what we did in a particular period in time, which is very different from now," Macca noted.

He then went on to shower Harry Styles and company with praise.

"But I like One Direction. They're young, beautiful boys and that's the attraction. But they can sing and they make good records, so that's what I can see in common—and that the girls love them."

McCartney didn't say whether those girls included his daughter, but we suspect so.