Paul McCartney did not shy away from his thoughts of where the Beatles stand when it comes to their peers the Rolling Stones in a new interview with The New Yorker.

“I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are,” he said.

Despite it sounding like a dig — and McCartney has previously said that the Beatles are a better band to him — the decades-long rivalry is more friendly and good-natured than adversarial.

Last year while speaking with Howard Stern on Sirius XM, he agreed with the host’s assertion that the Beatles were the better band, though he also made clear he was a fan of the Rolling Stones.

“The Rolling Stones have been a big concert band in other decades and other eras when the Beatles never even did an arena tour.”

In an upcoming interview slated to air on BBC Radio 4 later this month, McCartney discussed the Beatles breakup and said he personally was not the cause of their demise, but rather it stemmed from John Lennon

Paul McCartney, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones