"I just played bass in The Rolling Stones, and I'm a fucking Beatle!": Paul McCartney on Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues

Every musician has heroes — even one with the stature of Paul McCartney. Most artists would give anything for the chance to work with the Beatles legend, but when Macca had the opportunity to play with The Rolling Stones on their 2023 album Hackney Diamonds, it was he who was starstruck.

And his reaction, as recalled by Ronnie Wood in a new interview with Classic Rock, is one of the most endearing stories in recent rock history: “He always set it as one of his ambitions, and after he played on Hackney Diamonds he said: ‘I played with the Rolling Stones.’ He was so proud of himself, you know?”

McCartney and the Stones: A Relationship Spanning Six Decades

The connection between Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones goes back to the very beginning of both bands’ careers. The Beatles and the Stones were the twin poles of the British Invasion, rivals in the press but friends and mutual admirers in private. Lennon and McCartney even gifted the Stones their first top ten hit, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, in 1963 — reportedly finishing the song in front of the Stones in their dressing room.

McCartney’s first studio collaboration with the Stones came in 1967, when he contributed backing vocals alongside John Lennon to two tracks: ‘Dandelion’ and ‘We Love You’ — the latter often regarded as one of the band’s most experimental and psychedelic recordings, released as a single in August 1967 as a response to the drug charges faced by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that summer.

It would be nearly 60 years before McCartney worked alongside the Stones in the studio again.

Hackney Diamonds: McCartney on Bass

Hackney Diamonds — released in October 2023 — was the Rolling Stones’ first album of original material since A Bigger Bang in 2005, and their first without drummer Charlie Watts, who had died in August 2021. It was produced by Andrew Watt and featured a remarkable cast of guest musicians including Elton John, Lady Gaga, and Stevie Wonder.

Paul McCartney played bass guitar on the track ‘Bite My Head Off’ — a thunderous, riff-driven rock track that showcased exactly why McCartney remains one of the most distinctive bass players in rock history. His contribution was not a cameo but a full performance, anchoring the track with the kind of melodic, driving bass lines that had defined the Beatles’ sound from Rubber Soul onwards.

Producer Andrew Watt recalled the session with characteristic directness: “He got to just be the bass player in the band, and he fucking loved it. As I was walking Paul out of the studio, he said, ‘I just fucking played bass in The Rolling Stones, and I’m a fucking Beatle!’”

The delight in that reaction — from a man who has sold hundreds of millions of records, played to the largest audiences in rock history, and been knighted by the Queen — says everything about the enduring power of musical heroes.

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Foreign Tongues: The Sessions Continue

The story does not end with Hackney Diamonds. McCartney’s bass playing also features on ‘Covered in You’, a track from the Stones’ latest album Foreign Tongues. Crucially, both recordings came from the same sessions — meaning McCartney’s contribution to the Stones’ catalogue was even more substantial than initially known.

Ronnie Wood confirmed the connection: “From the same sessions we kept the ‘Covered in You’ song and used that again.”

Foreign Tongues was also produced by Andrew Watt — the same producer behind both Hackney Diamonds and McCartney’s own latest solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, creating an unusual triangulation of projects across the two legends’ recent work.

Ronnie Wood on McCartney’s Reaction

In his Classic Rock interview, Ronnie Wood’s account of McCartney’s reaction is warm, funny, and entirely believable. “He always set it as one of his ambitions,” Wood says — a remarkable statement about a man who has achieved virtually everything else in music.

The image of Paul McCartney — a Beatle, a knight, a living legend — walking out of a recording studio saying “I played with the Rolling Stones” with the pride of a teenager who’s just sat in with his favourite band is one of the most human moments in recent rock history. It is a reminder that even at the very summit of the music world, the thrill of playing with your heroes never entirely fades.

McCartney, the Stones, and the 1967 Connection

The 1967 sessions that produced ‘We Love You’ and ‘Dandelion’ are worth revisiting in this context. Both tracks were recorded in the summer of 1967 — the same summer as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Their Satanic Majesties Request, the twin peaks of the Beatles’ and Stones’ psychedelic periods.

‘We Love You’ was a direct response to the drug trials of Jagger and Richards, its lyrics a defiant message to the establishment. The Beatles’ presence on the track — their voices audible in the backing vocals — was an act of solidarity as much as a musical collaboration. The song’s promotional film featured Jagger and Richards as Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, with Marianne Faithfull as the judge — one of the most provocative pieces of rock imagery of the era.

That McCartney should return to the Stones’ studio nearly six decades later, not as a guest vocalist but as their bass player, is a satisfying full circle — and a testament to the enduring friendship between two of rock’s greatest institutions.

Will the Stones Tour Again?

As for whether The Rolling Stones plan to tour following the release of Foreign Tongues, Ronnie Wood is characteristically philosophical. He and Mick Jagger “never stop wanting to play”, he says — but whether they do depends on Keith Richards.

“Anything’s possible,” Wood says. “We just, you know, toss a coin and see how it lands. That’s the way we’ve always played it.”

Given that the Stones have been tossing that coin since 1962 and it keeps coming up heads, the smart money is on more shows.

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→ Paul McCartney: Beatles History, Solo Career, Songs & Legacy
→ John Lennon: Beatles History, Solo Career, Songs & Legacy
→ George Harrison: Beatles History, Solo Career, Songs & Legacy
→ Ringo Starr: Beatles History, Solo Career, Songs & Legacy
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