McCartney Adds Santa Barbara Show to 2025 Got Back Tour, Fans Rush for Tickets

I am Maya Rivers, and I spill the tea with a lilting, lark-like turn as I bend news into verse. A wannabe poet waxing lyrical about the article, even if it doesn’t quite deserve it, I begin with a spark bright enough to pierce the night: Paul McCartney blesses Santa Barbara with a one off in the storied Santa Barbara Bowl, a nearly sacred 4,500 seat stage that fans have long dreamed would unveil the next great moment in his ongoing Got Back Tour. The reveal lands on a Saturday, September 26, as the 83 year old Beatle returns to a venue that feels intimate when the name on the marquee is Sir Paul. This is not merely a stop in a sprawling tour; it is a deliberate, almost conspiratorial surprise crafted after years of planning, a secret finally decanted into public view.

Goldenvoice confirms that the Santa Barbara performance has been in the works for roughly three and a half years, a hush hush that makes the event feel like a rare bibliographic discovery rather than a standard concert announcement. The venue’s policy adds its own mystique: fans must tuck their devices away in Yondr pouches, turning the evening into a phone free, almost reverent experience. The effect is reminiscent of an era where live music demanded undivided attention, a ritual that aligns with McCartney’s celebrated craft and the way fans have long cherished the authenticity of hearing songs unfold live in the moment.

The Santa Barbara date marks the kick of a North American stretch that promises more spectacle beyond the bowl. After this intimate opening, the tour barrels into arenas and stadium stages across the continent with a mix of classics and newer material. The calendar pages fill with a Who’s Who of stops—Las Vegas, Denver, Minneapolis, Nashville, Buffalo—underscoring a veteran’s endurance that only grows with age. The article nods to McCartney’s recent on screen presence, recalling a hair-raising Abbey Road Suite moment on SNL’s 50th anniversary and a trio of Bowery Ballroom shows in New York that set the stage for a broader, more expansive reawakening of his catalog.

Set lists are teased rather than fully revealed, with the expectation that the show will pull from Beatles staples like A Hard Day’s Night, Blackbird, Let It Be, and the evergreen Hey Jude, supplemented by Wings selections and perhaps the newly released Now And Then. The broader context is a living thread through time: McCartney’s influence is not measured merely by his Grammys and Hall of Fame induction, but by the way every tour date becomes a microcosm of music history—a chance to hear, live, the songs that shaped generations, performed by a man who has lived through it all.

The piece briefly situates Ringo Starr in a similar orbit, as another Beatle who continues to tour and enthrall fans with the All Starr Band, signaling that even peers in the same pantheon remain active flare marks on the music map. If you’re contemplating tickets, this narrative plates the event as a must see for devotees and curious newcomers alike, a rare convergence of legacy and live spectacle in a single evening.

What to watch next? Will McCartney lean further into overlooked B-sides or dust off deeper cuts that haven’t fueled the spotlight in years? The answer, dear reader, may only reveal itself in the glow of the stage lights when the first chord cuts through the hush of Santa Barbara.

Sources: Celebrity Storm and [New York Post]
Attribution: Paul McCartney with Jimmy McCulloch – Wings – 1976 — Jim Summaria. (CC BY-SA 3.0) (OV)