Paul McCartney to play U.S. Bank Stadium in October

Paul McCartney is returning to the Twin Cities. On Thursday, Live Nation announced that the Beatles’ legend will play U.S. Bank Stadium on Friday, Oct. 17. It will be one of 16 stops on his Got Back tour and one of only four stadium shows.

Tickets for the concert will go on sale July 18 at 10 a.m., with the artist presale on Tuesday, July 15. Registration for the presale is live at the tour website.

“It’s quite exciting to be part of an announcement that involves music immortality — Paul McCartney to perform once again in the Twin Cities for a rare local concert, nearly nine and a half years since his last performance in our community,” Vikings commentator Paul Allen said at the tour announcement..

“Paul McCartney, the live experience, is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show and more,” Allen added. “It’s hours of the greatest moments from the last 60 years of music, dozens of songs from Paul’s solo, Wings and, of course, Beatles songbooks that have formed the soundtracks of many of our lives.”

On Wednesday, the 83-year-old Beatle dropped a hint of a tour on social media with a photo of two guitar picks: “Paul McCartney” printed on one, “Got Back In 2025” on the other.

In February, he performed a surprise show for just 500 people at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. He gave only one day’s notice for the gig. Then he played two more nights at the Bowery as a tune-up for singing a three-song Beatles medley from “Abbey Road” to close TV’s marathon “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special” in New York.

Before that, McCartney’s 59-concert Got Back tour stretched from 2022 to December 2024. He typically offered a generous 37 songs, from his Beatles, Wings and solo career. The trek was a mix of stadium and arena performances.

The two surviving Beatles, McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr, keep touring — because that’s what musicians do.

In a show in Brazil in 2023, McCartney said, “When people ask me, ‘Why do you still do it?’ It’s because of the crowds. When you go onstage with an audience like that, the feedback you get, it’s like meeting a dear friend in the street you haven’t seen for a long time. But it’s that 40,000 times over.”

Meanwhile, the Beatles drummer just ended a run of June concerts. Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band plan to resume touring in September with theater shows in Chicago, Milwaukee, Las Vegas and elsewhere.

In May 2024, Starr was asked by USA Today how much longer he sees himself going on tours.

“Until the end of this year, at least,” he said. “That’s where I get my rocks off playing.” But Starr, who turned 85 this month, released a new album of original country music, “Look Up,” in January.

With his U.S. Bank performance, McCartney will become the first artist to perform in four different Twin Cities stadiums. In 1965, the Beatles encountered screaming teens and tweens at the old Met Stadium in Bloomington. Macca, as his fans call him, gigged at the now-defunct Metrodome in 1993, and he played at Target Field in 2014, making him the first artist to gig in all three Twins ballparks.

The 19-time Grammy winner also has rocked various Twin Cities arenas, as far back as 1976 at the old St. Paul Civic Center with his band Wings and as recently as 2016 for two nights at Target Center. He also thrilled fans at Xcel Energy Center in 2002 and 2005.

A steady recording artist with 26 post-Beatles albums on his lofty résumé, the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer dropped his latest album of original material, “McCartney III,” in 2020. Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield said this “playful gem” recalled “the pastoral, laid-back sound of his 1970 solo debut.”

No material from “III” was performed during the Got Back Tour. Instead, McCartney got back to his massive catalog of hits.