Paul McCartney has lauded Billie Eilish in a new interview with Howard Stern and called the 18-year-old superstar “very special”.

McCartney revealed that he and Eilish first got in contact last year after his daughter, Stella McCartney, designed the singer’s outfit for her performance at Glastonbury Festival: “Stella FaceTimed me with Billie and her family because she wore some of Stella’s clothes on Glastonbury when she played it, so they were there. It was great to sort of chat with them and stuff.”

Stern then asked Macca what he thought about Eilish and her brother Finneas’ home recording set-up with the duo famously recording her number one record from her room in her family home. McCartney, however, revealed that would never have worked for The Beatles: “For them, it’s brilliant. And what they produce from the bedroom is really very special.”

The former Beatles then went on to vividly recall recording during the early days of The Beatles, explaining: “The memories of going into EMI studios and to Abbey Road and the thrill of being some kid who’d been in his bedroom long enough, thank you very much, and getting out to this beautiful studio and being on almost kind of office hours — two songs in the morning, lunch, two songs in the afternoon, good night. Four songs a day we were banging them out, it was so exciting… I wouldn’t swap that for anything.”

During the same interview McCartney also pleaded with China to shut down their wet markets, saying: “I really hope that this will mean the Chinese government says ‘OK guys, we have really got to get super hygienic around here.’ Let’s face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats, It’s not a stupid idea, it is a very good idea. They don’t need all the people dying. And what’s it for? All these medieval practices. They just need to clean up their act. This may lead to it. If this doesn’t, I don’t know what will.”