Paul McCartney says the inspiration for the title of his latest album, "Memory Almost Full," came from a phrase he saw on his cell phone.

"It seemed symbolic of our lives today," the 65-year-old ex-Beatle said Monday. "Your messages are always full. And your mind is full. And it doesn't matter if you're my age or 20. I think that we all need to delete stuff every so often."

McCartney is in Paris for a concert at the Olympia theater. He made his first appearance at the Olympia in 1964 with the Beatles, a performance that caused havoc in the streets. He returned to the theater nearly a decade later with Wings, the group that gave him a new life on the stage in the post-Beatles era.

Dressed casually in jeans and sneakers, McCartney gave the press a concert preview of "Let It Be" and "Lady Madonna," singing and playing the piano.

He reminisced about visiting Paris with John Lennon before they became famous.

"I think the only time we came to the Olympia was when we played here," McCartney said. "It was too expensive so we went to a little dirty dance hall instead."

He released "Memory Almost Full," his 21st solo album, on Hear Music, a startup label launched by coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. and Concord Music Group. The album was released earlier this year.

"The business was changing, everything was changing," said McCartney, who left EMI Music, a unit of EMI Group PLC. "I started to think that the record companies didn't know how to deal with it and they were getting boring and jaded."

"If you're among 300 artists whose album is coming out, they have no time for you," he said.

McCartney was less talkative about his divorce from Heather Mills.

"We are here to talk about music," a press officer said. "Artistic questions and only artistic questions are welcome."