Paul McCartney ‘Paranoid’ About Calling Thom Yorke to Collaborate

"She's got a project, she keeps saying to me, 'Ring Thom and just go into the studio and just see what you come out with.'" Macca tells the U.K. music mag. "I'm a bit sort of paranoid to just ring him up. 'Hey Thom, it's Paul here. What do you fancy, what are you doing? Do you fancy writing something?' Just in case he says, 'Er, actually I'm busy'."

Maybe McCartney should ask Nigel Godrich to make the introduction. The longtime Radio producer helmed Sir Paul's 2005 album 'Chaos and Creation In the Backyard,' and while he didn't work on 'New,' the record Macca drops on Oct. 15, their collaboration earned critical praise and garnered three Grammy nominations. Safe to assume they're on good terms.

If McCartney is a bit intimidated by Yorke, he's apparently less freaked by rock's poet laureate.

"There were big rumours a couple of years ago about me and Bob Dylan writing together, and I've still got that at the back of my mind," McCartney tells the NME. "I would like to do it."