Songwriting creative process

McCartney named Bob Dylan as the artist he would still like to collaborate with, though he is too nervous to call him.

“No, I get asked this question, and I always think Bob Dylan”

Good Hang with Amy Poehler: Paul McCartney (Oct 13, 2026) · Listen from 43:42

McCartney said he admires Billie Eilish but does not wish he had written her songs, and found some current pop banal.

“Billie Eilish, I think is cool, but I don't think I want to have written her songs”

Good Hang with Amy Poehler: Paul McCartney (Oct 13, 2026) · Listen from 42:07

McCartney blamed Bruce Springsteen for the expectation of very long concerts, noting older acts played about an hour.

“Bruce just suddenly doing these three, four hour things. So that's what we do”

Good Hang with Amy Poehler: Paul McCartney (Oct 13, 2026) · Listen from 41:02

McCartney said he has no formal method and writes by improvising on guitar or piano and following what sounds good.

“I always just sit down with a guitar or at the piano and just start plonking something”

Good Hang with Amy Poehler: Paul McCartney (Oct 13, 2026) · Listen from 33:12

Rodrigo says writing happy love songs was a challenge meant to prove she need not be sad to write well.

“I wanted to prove to myself that I didn't have to be miserable to write a song that I liked”

The Daily: Popcast: Olivia Rodrigo Tried Writing Love Songs. Then Life Got Messy. (May 31, 2026) · Listen from 46:17

Rodrigo describes herself as a prolific songwriter who writes many weak songs to find a few she loves.

“I write, like, 250 songs that are the worst and then I write, like, three songs that I love”

The Daily: Popcast: Olivia Rodrigo Tried Writing Love Songs. Then Life Got Messy. (May 31, 2026) · Listen from 22:42

Rodrigo says she writes songs to process her feelings rather than planning concept records.

“write songs to like process my feelings. So every day when I like come and like, I sit at the piano or I get the guitar”

The Daily: Popcast: Olivia Rodrigo Tried Writing Love Songs. Then Life Got Messy. (May 31, 2026) · Listen from 10:11

Poehler said McCartney's openness about his creative process made her feel she could write a song.

“I always felt like watching you work made me feel like I could write a song”

Good Hang with Amy Poehler: Paul McCartney (Oct 13, 2026) · Listen from 22:56

Jonas noted that weekly music releases have grown from 30–50 in the early 2000s to thousands today.

“on any given Friday release day, there would be anywhere from 30 to 50 new releases”

SmartLess: "Nick Jonas" (May 25, 2026) · Listen from 35:59

Rogan describes his comedy writing as free writing on a subject, then extracting and expanding ideas, calling it a numbers game.

“It's just a numbers and time game. The amount of numbers, the amount of time that you spend writing”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2504 - Skylar Grey (May 22, 2026) · Listen from 1:41:19

Grey says her songs that come with less effort tend to be better than ones she overthinks.

“The songs that take less effort tend to be the better songs. And the songs that I slave over to try to get them perfect and overthink, they end up doing nothing”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2504 - Skylar Grey (May 22, 2026) · Listen from 1:36:32