What’s Paul McCartney really like to work with in the studio? Other than Ringo, the members of Wings and his other backing bands, not many musicians know, but ex-Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was given a peek into what it must be like on the day he crossed paths with the Beatle.
Sambora was talking on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast and revealed how it happened. Bon Jovi were in Henson Studio in Los Angeles mixing their live record One Wild Night, which must date the encounter to around 2000/early 2001.
"We were pretty popular, so, I'm the guy that likes to go around the studio and go, 'Who's in today? What's happening?' ‘Don Henley’s over here in B, and Sting’s doing his thing over there. And then Paul's in there.' I go, 'Paul, who?' ‘Paul McCartney’. I had never met a Beatle in my life. I was probably almost 40."
"He was in A and I was in B, and I was working on a Bon Jovi live record that I was mixing, and I was peeking out the door, waiting for Paul to walk in, because his band and everybody was there," Sambora continues.
"It's like two hours now, he's not showing up. So I walk out of one studio to go into the other overdub studio to actually do some overdubs on this live thing. I walk smack into him, and he goes, 'See you're practising, are you, mate?' And he takes the guitar, and he's lefty and I'm righty, and he takes the guitar and starts to play it."
"There's a couch there, and we sit down, and he just goes right into it, man. And they had to pull us apart, actually, because we just got into talking to each other so much. So, then he had to go into his respective studio, and I was in my respective studio, and I looked back, and Paul's got one of my guitars, and he's kind of messing around with it, right? And I'm mixing, so I said, 'Well, if you're going to be in here, why don't you help me mix this?' And he did."
Sambora didn’t say which track he mixed, but whichever one it was McCartney’s contribution went uncredited.
