'I Didn't Even Look Up for the First Six Months': Paul McCartney Touring Guitarist & Bassist Opens Up on Playing Bass Next to Beatles Legend

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'I Didn't Even Look Up for the First Six Months': Paul McCartney Touring Guitarist & Bassist Opens Up on Playing Bass Next to Beatles Legend

"Learning to play bass and having the guts to stand next to Paul while doing so was a challenge and honor."

The_Phoenician [UG Writer]

Ultimate Guitar

September 1 2024

Brian Ray recalled the moment he was chosen to play bass and guitar with Paul McCartney's touring band, saying that having the "guts" to play the four-string next to The Beatles bassist was "a challenge and honor."

Over the past couple of decades, Brian Ray has held one of the most enviable positions in the guitar-playing world—touring with Paul McCartney as guitarist, bassist, and backing vocalist. Ray was recommended to his current boss by drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., as McCartney had been looking for a player who could switch between bass and guitar.

And while the California-born musician has already had ample experience working with the genre's greats prior to joining the legendary Beatle's touring retinue (which included collabs with Etta James, Keith Richards, Santana, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, and Bo Diddley), he admits to Guitar Player in a recent interview that he was still nervous during his first months on the job:

"Learning to play bass and having the guts to stand next to Paul while doing so was a challenge and honor. I didn't even look up for the first six months for fear of losing my place, because he's Paul freakin' McCartney."

Mr. Ray notes that spending over 20 years next to one of the greatest musicians alive is bound to be a great learning experience, adding:

"There is no way a musician can spend as much time around Paul as I have and not get some of that on you."

(Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Desert Trip)

Even so, he credits Etta James as his foremost musical mentor, since the legendary singer-songwriter took Ray under her wing when he was just a fledgling musician:

"When I first got with Etta James, I had just turned 18 and was a little blond greenhorn from Glendale, California. Yet she took me in and kept me by her side for 15 years. We went from playing a cinderblock chitlin circuit blues gig in Colorado Springs to suddenly opening arenas and stadiums for the Rolling Stones."

"She offered me the experience of a lifetime. without which I may not have been the right guy for Paul McCartney those many years later."

Etta James & Brian Ray, Montreux 1975 (Dany GIGNOUX)

Back in July, Ray noted how his boss keeps performing for the sheer love of the game, as he "certainly doesn't need" the financial benefits:

"He's passionate about it. And he loves to sing a song. He loves to entertain. He's just got that gene in him. He was born to do it. I think to myself, 'Why? Why do it?' He has to love it, because it's a schlep for anybody. I don't care if you're Paul or whoever you are, it is still a schlep. You gotta still get up and go and make that plane and make that bus. It's still a schlep. You've gotta really want it."

Brian Ray released his latest solo album, "If The Earth Was Round", earlier this month.