Paul McCartney praises Kanye West: 'He's a crazy guy who comes up with great stuff'

LONDON, May 24 (UPI) -- Paul McCartney has expressed his fondness of working with Kanye West during their collaborative period from 2015.

"I love Kanye, and he loves me," the legendary musician said of the outspoken hip-hop star during an interview on BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes series.

"He's a monster, he's a crazy guy who comes up with great stuff so he inspires me," he continued.

McCartney and West worked together on three songs that were released in 2015 including Rihanna's "FourFiveSeconds," "Only One" inspired by West's deceased mother Donda West and the boastful "All Day," a song in which the former Beatles member admitted friends told him to distance himself from.

"I get this track back, a thing called 'All Day': he's taken my melody and he's made it seriously urban, which is funny because the lyrics use the N-word – a lot! 'How long have you been at the mall? All day, n-word,'" McCartney said of the song's content which led to those in his inner circle to feel uneasy.

"People like Oprah, who's a little conservative about that stuff, said, 'You shouldn't do it, even black people shouldn't use that word. I said, 'Yeah, but it's Kanye! And he's talking about an urban generation that uses that word in a completely different way,'" the 73-year-old said defending the piece. "It's the context. So I was actually pleased with it."

Also during the Mastertapes interview, McCartney revealed that he was depressed after the Beatles spilt apart in 1970. "It was difficult to know what do after The Beatles. How do you follow that?" he said of his mindset at the time. "I was depressed. You would be. You were breaking from your lifelong friends. So I took to the bevvies."

It wasn't until McCartney formed Wings that got him back out of his funk and back into loving music. "I liked the idea of a band. I wanted to go back to square one."