Sir Paul McCartney thinks the Brexit referendum was “probably a mistake.”
The former Beatle said so in a new interview with BBC Newsnight, adding that now, he doesn’t think “anyone quite knows what to do with” the U.K.’s scheduled withdrawal from the E.U.
“I think it’s a mess,” he said, “and I will be glad when it’s over.”
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McCartney, who was born in Liverpool, England, clarified that he didn’t participate in the 2016 Brexit vote, where just over half of those voting (51.9%) supported the withdrawal. “I vote for someone I believe in, and so often, there’s nobody I believe in,” he said. The 77-year-old also explained that he disagreed with others in his generation who thought Brexit represented a return to “the old days.”
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Even so, McCartney expressed hope for the future.
“I think we’ll come through with it; I think we always do,” he added. “I mean, I am old enough to remember garbage in the streets and people not being able to get buried because the gravediggers were on strike. I mean, that was a pretty rough time, and we came through it. So I think we will come through this.”
His words put him at odds with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr, who called Brexit a “great move” in a 2017 interview that recently resurfaced on Twitter — coincidentally, also with BBC Newsnight. The famed drummer added that he would have voted in favor of Brexit (had he voted, which he didn’t), since it’s better to be “in control of your own country.”
“The people voted and, you know, they have to get on with it,” Starr said.