Paul McCartney has looked back on the “excitement” he felt while working with The Rolling Stones in NME’s latest In Conversation video series – check out what he had to say below.
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The Beatles legend sat down with us on the eve of sharing his 19th solo album, ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’, and spoke to us about his memories of the Fab Four, as well as touching on potential tours in the future.
On the latter, he said his manager had asked him about retirement when he hit 50, which he understood because “we thought 30 was really old [when] we were 20”.
“But it came, and it went,” he said. “People were still playing, and audiences like the music. If the music is from that period, they don’t get to hear it live any other way, so you’ve got to hear Neil Young live to get the whole feel of Neil – the Neil feel.
“Same with a lot of bands – the Stones, The Eagles. There’s nothing like it.” Upon mentioning The Stones, we pointed out that it had just been announced that they’re releasing a new album soon, with him on it.
Marking his second appearance on a Stones record in the last few years after featuring on ‘Hackney Diamonds‘, McCartney told us it was “really exciting”, because he didn’t normally play “as a session guy”.
“It was really nice to just show up at a studio with your bass and just say, ‘Right, where do you want me?” he said. “You start playing, and they show you the song, and I start thinking, ‘I’m playing with the Stones!’
So Paul comes in, learns the song, everyone’s playing around a little bit, we start going for takes, Paul stands up. All of a sudden, Ron stands up, Keith stands up, Mick drags a mic into the fucking center of the room, and I swear to God, the roof left the fucking building. I can’t explain what that feels like, but it was the Stones and the Beatles. It wasn’t heavy for them; it was a fucking blast. And the smile on Paul’s face kept getting bigger and bigger. We did three or four takes of that. And Paul hit the switch during his bass solo, and Mick literally goes, “Come on, Paul, let’s hear something” in his Liverpool accent. Like, you can’t make it up. Everyone was on fire. We did another tune because we were having so much fun.
Just how much fun did Paul have?
When I was walking Paul out, he literally was like, “I just played fucking bass with the Stones — and I’m a fucking Beatle.” He literally said those words. These guys were literally like they were 18 again, and you can hear it in the recording. It’s ferocious.
