Sir Paul McCartney has been ''trying to avoid'' doing a Las Vegas residency.

The former Beatles musician has no interest in joining the famous faces who have held a residency at one of the city's iconic venues, as he thinks Vegas is where musicians ''go to die'' when they can no longer tour the world.

He said: ''As for playing Vegas, that's something I've been trying to avoid my whole life. Definitely nothing attracts me about the idea. Vegas is where you go to die, isn't it? It's the elephant's graveyard.''

Paul is also reluctant to head to Broadway in New York following the success of Bruce Springsteen's residency, because he doesn't want people to think he's ''following a trend''.

He added to GQ magazine: ''Some people would like me to do it, as they say I've got plenty of stories and plenty of songs, but one of the things that's holding me back at the moment is that Bruce has just done it, you know? It feels a bit like, 'Oh, suddenly I'll do it now then!'

''So I think that's made me a little reluctant to follow in his footsteps or follow a trend. The idea is OK, but I think I'd just prefer to play with the band to a bigger audience, or ever smaller - I don't mind little clubs. I do a solo segment in the middle of my shows at the moment and to do a whole show like that, I'm not sure I fancy it. It might be a little bit like too much hard work.''

The 78-year-old musician won't do a residency because he still has plenty of energy to tour the world with his massive catalogue of songs.

And Paul recently said songwriting is like ''talking to a psychiatrist''.

He explained: ''I still get the same buzz from songwriting. There's a black hole. There's nothing there. And you start going da-da dum-di-dum-di, and there's suddenly a song. Sometimes it's like talking to a psychiatrist, because you've got your troubles out. You feel satisfied.''