James Louis McCartney (born 12 September 1977) is a British musician and songwriter. He is the only son of songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney. He has contributed to a number of solo albums by his parents, including Flaming Pie (1997) and Driving Rain (2001) by Paul McCartney, and Wide Prairie (1998) by Linda McCartney. He has released two EPs and two albums. His most recent, The Blackberry Train, was released on 6 May 2016.
James Louis McCartney was born in Avenue Clinic at London on 12 September 1977. He is the only son of songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney and his first wife Linda McCartney. He was named after both his paternal grandfather Jim McCartney and his father, whose full name is James Paul McCartney, as well as Linda's late mother, Louise Sara (Lindner) Eastman. His mother was Jewish.
He spent the first two and a half years of his life on the road while his parents toured with their band Wings. After the band broke up in 1980, the McCartney family settled in Rye, East Sussex. He attended the local state secondary school, the Thomas Peacocke Community College. He has stated his earliest inspiration to learn guitar was Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. He began playing music when his father gave him a Fender Stratocaster at age nine. The guitar had previously been owned by Carl Perkins.