Mick Jagger has spoken to NME about the “very easy” experience of working with Paul McCartney on The Rolling Stones‘ new album ‘Foreign Tongues’.
- READ MORE: Mick Jagger tells us about The Rolling Stones’ future: “I’m already writing for the next album”
The Beatles legend teamed up with the Stones for their latest full-length effort – released next Friday (July 10) – taking on bass duties for the song ‘Covered In You’.
The Wings star and solo icon also spoke to NME about his excitement to get involved in the record, explaining that he was “chuffed” to be asked to contribute.
“You could be a bit blasé and go, ‘Yeah, OK, so what?’ But for me, it wasn’t – it went the other way,” he said, going on to recall how he felt in the studio.
“It was like, ‘Wow, there’s Mick [Jagger]! Ooh, there’s Keith [Richards]! Woah, there’s Ronnie [Wood]!’ It was exciting. It was really good. A great thing is all I had to do was play bass and not make mistakes, so it was good.”
McCartney continued: “I went home that day, and I’m saying to everyone, ‘I just played with The Stones!’ I was glad I wasn’t blasé about it. It’s really exciting. Not everyone plays with The Stones!”
Now, in a new interview with NME, Stones frontman Jagger has opened up about what it was like to get the music legend in the studio with them, and revealed that he recorded his part in “the same session as he did ‘Bite My Head Off’” for their last album, 2023’s ‘Hackney Diamonds’.
“The new tune is more of a funk bass part,” Jagger explained, before going on to share what it was like to work alongside McCartney.
“It was very easy,” he told NME. “Obviously, I’ve known Paul for ages. He’s not a stranger, but he’s never played bass with us before. It’s a different thing, you know?
“I said to Andy [Watt, producer], ‘Is he gonna be into this because it’s a punk tune and I want overdriven bass. It’s gonna be simple, no mucking about.’ And Paul did exactly what was needed in, like, 10 minutes.”
As Jagger said, this wasn’t the first time that the two of them joined forces since taking the music world by storm in the ‘60s. Aside from collabs on ‘Bite My Head Off’ and ‘Covered In You’, McCartney and his Beatles bandmate John Lennon also helped pen the Stones’ second single ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ in 1963. The Stones’ Brian Jones contributed briefly to ‘Yellow Submarine’ and Jagger helped work on ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’, too.
The two bands also did a one-off performance together in 1968, where they played ‘Yer Blues’ together, and two decades after that, Jagger inducted the Beatles into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as per Ultimate Classic Rock).
McCartney is just one of the many famous faces that contribute to the upcoming Rolling Stones album, and other names include The Cure’s Robert Smith on ‘Divine Intervention’, Bruno Mars on cowbell for ‘Never Wanna Lose You’, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Beautiful Delilah’.
Also in the NME interview, Jagger spoke about how the band have no plans of retiring anytime soon and said that he “already started writing [new] songs”, but is toying with the idea of having them go to other artists.
“When you write a song, you sometimes decide ‘that’s not for me, but it could be for the Chili Peppers’ or whatever,” he shared. “I’m very open-minded to it. I’ve got a lot of stuff, and not all of it’s suitable for The Rolling Stones. It shouldn’t stop me writing them, you know. If you get an idea, just write it.”
Jagger also told NME about the chances of the Stones returning to Glastonbury, their future tour plans, him being in “a Sam Fender moment lately”, and more. Read the interview here, or watch in full in the video above.
‘Foreign Tongues’ will also include the previously released singles ‘Rough And Twisted’, ‘In The Stars’ and ‘Jealous Lover’, as well as a cover of the Amy Winehouse classic ‘You Know I’m No Good’. It’ll also feature the group’s late drummer, Charlie Watts.