"Paul never rolls his eyes while we're playing 'Hey Jude' again, a song he has performed at least 2,000 times" Ray says. "He never once has made one remark or one bored face. So in turn we're inspired and we're excited as well."
The session man and musical director had already worked with Etta James, Peter Frampton, Smokey Robinson, Shakira and many others before hooking up with McCartney in 2002, when McCartney sought a player who was comfortable moving between guitar and bass. (UCR)
“A gig isn’t a big enough word for what happened to us as individuals, and as a band,” Ray told Kylie Olsson in a recent interview, which you can watch below. “It really is about him and his trust in us … because obviously [he] could have anyone he wants. And the fact that he continued to call us back, and still does, is just very touching to me.”
Ray described McCartney as a “great leader” and an “inspiring cat" and detailed their live sessions, which usually involve securing “the biggest room in a professional big studio” and filling it with all the instruments the boss might want to play: several pianos, synths, guitar and bass. After that, it's often a case of hanging around as McCartney moves around the room, exploring some of his ideas.
“So it requires everyone to be on their toes,” Ray continued. “As far as it affects the band, we’re there to serve at his pleasure as a paintbrush on the palette. You know, he’ll use us if he wants to. He doesn’t need any of us — he can do anything that he’s looking for himself. But he generously has us do stuff. … Sometimes we’ll play on a whole basic track as a band. Sometimes we’ll just do a guitar overdub, or a dulcimer, or a solo.”
Admittedly, this process sometimes involves a lot of downtime. “There’ll be some waiting because he wants all those paintbrushes to be ready, just like he wants all the instruments to be ready," Ray explained. “Hey, man, who would you rather be waiting for, Paul McCartney or some rando? It’s so fun, and his ideas are always so cool. ... He’s something very special, that guy.”
Ray, meanwhile, just released a video for his single “On My Way to You,” which can also be seen below.
Truth be told, he doesn't really even believe it now.
"It's like 18 years in the blink of an eye, It's some memories that I'll be unpacking for another 20 years after, you know?"
Of course, unlike in The Beatles' democracy, McCartney is the boss of his solo band and everybody in the band is there at his whim and with his blessing.
"We're in a pretty inspired place right now," Ray says. "Paul has just really got a lot of fire in his belly, and it's evident. He came into rehearsals just like really going for it. It's inspiring to us because of him.".
Every show is around three hours long, the setlist is pulled from a discography of hundreds of songs, many of which were never meant to be performed live.
"It's a big responsibility, I remember for the first part of our touring life, I basically was so busy and intent on getting it right that I just didn't even look up for six months. I mean, I could see [McCartney] out of the corner of my eye, [but I kept telling myself] 'Not gonna do it, not gonna look. I'm here doing my job.'"
The blond in the Paul McCartney live band, Ray plays lead, rhythm and slide guitar where applicable; he plays bass guitar whenever McCartney is playing something else, he plays acoustic guitar during the more intimate moments of the show and he sings harmonies on nearly every song.
It's massive task to say nothing of the fact that Ray doesn't know what instrument McCartney will ask him to play until rehearsal.
"I remember my first preparation...at home. I had an acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar and a bass all on stands in front of me, a mic stand and a stack of CDs...And I would just go through this list and other songs that I thought could appear on a list later and just prepared for anything that could come my way, hoping that I would've covered whatever it is that he would need."
Even after more than a decade-and-a-half, Ray says he never takes his gig for granted. And one of the most energizing things is that neither does McCartney.
"Paul never rolls his eyes that we're playing 'Hey Jude' again," Ray says. "He never once has made one remark or one [bored] face. So in turn we're inspired and we're excited as well."
The interview is from "Ken Dashow's Beatles Revolution" podcast.
