Since 2002, Brian Ray has held down the enviable gig as guitarist and bassist in Paul McCartney’s band. At the same time, he’s built a successful side career as a solo artist – sometimes with his garage rock band, the Bayonets – and has released a series of punchy power pop albums and singles that recall the ebullient, hard-driving and hook-laden sounds that dominated the Southern California scene in the late Seventies.
“I’m a West Coast guy, so that stuff is in my roots,” he says. “The Plimsouls, Dwight Twilley, the Knack – they were awesome. Of course, power pop can be traced earlier to the Raspberries and the Sweet, and then that got adopted by Cheap Trick. Even Tom Petty was power pop at times. I have my rootsy side, but I also have my pop side. In my music, they sort of dance together.”
Ray’s latest album, My Town, is something of a “best of” collection in that it includes his singles from the past decade, but it also features four new cuts that he recorded with his McCartney bandmate Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, as well as bassists Scott Shriner (from Weezer) and Davey Farranger (from Elvis Costello’s the Imposters).
The record’s lead single, Bad 4 U, which Ray co-wrote with his label head, Steven Van Zandt, is an irresistible nugget of ear candy that boasts hooks at every turn and packs a knockout guitar solo. When the Earth Was Round and Hold Me Close are raucous, ridiculously catchy rockers, while the coral sitar-flavored All the While dips into Sixties psychedelia and features Ray channeling Jimi Hendrix on a cosmic guitar lead.
“That song is a bit of a left turn for me,” Ray says. “I was talking to Dennis Mortensen, who works with Steven Van Zandt, and he said, ‘Why don’t you do a long-form jam that doesn’t have any adherence to a singles format? It could be seven minutes long – just have a blast.’ That’s what I did. I used a 1955 Les Paul Special and put it through a Marshall, but what sounds like a whammy bar is a [Gamechanger Audio] Bigsby Pedal. It’s absolute wizardry.”
Ray feels right at home on Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records, which he says, “is geared toward garage rock, but that encompasses so much. And the great thing about working with Steven is he’s like the old-school A&R guys in that he really gets involved with his artists.
“We talk all the time, and I’ll play him songs. He always has ideas, so we bounce things off each other. Of course, it’s great when he plays my songs on his Underground Garage station on Sirius. He’ll pick a track and put it on his Coolest Songs in the World channel. He’s a big believer in what he plays and gets involved in, and I’m very happy to work with him.”
Let’s go back to your early years. I understand your first pro gig was touring with Bobby “Boris” Pickett of Monster Mash fame.
“That’s right. Bryan Englund, the drummer of my high school band, was the son of the great actress Cloris Leachman, and back then she was dating Bobby Pickett. One day, Bobby heard us rehearsing in Bryan’s garage, and he asked us if we’d do some gigs with him. We were, like, 17, so this sounded amazing ≠ we were going to be the Crypt-Kicker 5. We played Six Flags in Texas, a gig in Missouri and a few other places. It was great; we did our own sort of zombie makeup, and my late sister came out with us and sang.”
Beyond Monster Mash, what was the rest of the set like?
“It was a seasonal novelty 40-minute set based on The Twist and Monster Mash and Me and My Mummy. He did a lot of cover songs. He had an assistant who played Renfield [Count Dracula’s fanatically devoted servant]. He’d come out and throw chicken wings at the kids. It was a lot of fun.”
I’m sure. Soon after, you joined Etta James’ band. Quite a big switch from Monster Mash!
“Yeah. [Laughs] That came about from a charity gig I did with Bobby Pickett. At the show, I met Phil Kaufman – he was a producer and tour manager – and he took a liking to me. He told me that he was working with Etta James, and he asked me to come to a rehearsal because he heard the guitar player couldn’t make it. It was wild – there was Etta James and all these killer players. I was shy and kind of sat there, but Etta said to Phil, ‘I like that little white kid.’ She asked me if I’d like to play the next night in Long Beach.”
Which was the start of a 14-year stretch with Etta James.
“That’s right. I was so young. I had just turned 18.”
Did her material offer you a lot of opportunities to shine as a guitarist?
“Oh, absolutely. Etta loved guitar, and in concert she did a lot of bumping rhythm and blues. It got very blues rock. I had lots of space to open up. She wanted me to rip. When I would play a solo, she’d keep yelling at me, ‘Play! Play!’ On songs like Running and Hiding Blues and Baby What You Want Me to Do, she encouraged me to play solo after solo. She was tough and hard, but she could be warm and fun. I had a great experience with her, and eventually I became her musical director.”
In 2002, you joined Paul McCartney’s band. How did that come about?
“It was kind of crazy. I had done an album with Shakira and was asked to go on tour with her. I told her people what I needed for a salary, which they agreed to, but then I said I required Business Class travel because there would be a lot of long flights. This became a problem, and they got somebody else. I was kind of kicking myself over that because I would have had years of work.
“A little later, my friend Abe Laboriel Jr. came to my birthday party. We had worked together in France doing Johnny Hallyday and Mylene Farmer, but now Abe was playing with Paul McCartney. I asked him if they were playing any shows, and he said they were thinking of doing a song at the Super Bowl before the National Anthem.”
![[L-R] Rusty Anderson, Sir Paul McCartney and Brian Ray play live, with McCartney playing one of his iconic Höfner basses](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5Y5P3rDtMcTbgiRZCZPEMW-1200-80.jpg.webp)
“So I asked, ‘Who’s going to play guitar when Paul plays bass, and who’s going to play bass when Paul plays guitar?” Abe said, ‘Actually, we’re looking for a guitar player who plays a little bass.”
“I said, ‘I’d love a shot at that.’ Abe put my name forward, and sure enough I got a call from David Kahne, who had produced a lot of Paul’s stuff. I went to meet David and hung out with him. I played some guitar and bass, and he said, ‘I’ve got a good feeling about this. I’ll put your name forward.’
“But David also said, ‘I have to be honest: There’s four other guys that are in the running. I don’t really have control over it, but I wish you good luck.’ I thought, ‘Okay, that’s about as good as it gets.’ I thanked him and split, and the next day I got a call: ‘Can you be on a plane tomorrow to go to New Orleans to play one song with Paul McCartney?’”
So you didn’t have to actually audition with Paul?
“Playing Freedom at the Super Bowl was my audition.”
No pressure at all.
“[Laughs] No, none! Later that night, everybody went back to the hotel bar. Paul was telling stories for a couple of hours, but after a while he said, ‘Thank you, guys. It’s time for bed.’ He hugged a bunch of people and started out, but before he left he came up to me and said, ‘Goodnight, Brian. Welcome aboard. Stick with Rusty – he’ll show you the ropes.’”
Rusty being Rusty Anderson, who already played guitar in the band.
“That’s right.”
You were a guitar player primarily, so I imagine you had to woodshed on bass once you were in the band.
“Absolutely. I raced home and prepared for five weeks straight so I could be ready for the first band rehearsal. Truth is, I never concentrated on bass-playing. I played bass on my own demos and other people’s demos, so getting ready to play in Paul’s band was challenging.
“Thankfully, Paul’s basslines, while they’re iconic and memorable and musical, they’re not really technically challenging. They’re just so good. Because they’re so listenable, they’re easy to understand. Let’s face it – they’re in our bloodstreams. Even if you’re not a bass player, you know these parts. They’re in your head.”
Is there any process for how you and Rusty work our guitar solos?
“Rusty plays the lion’s share of the solos. He was the first guitar player hired, so that’s how that went. As time has gone on, Paul has asked me to do more and more solos.
“We just naturally fall into who plays what, though sometimes we talk about it: ‘Why don’t you play the lower part here?’ or ‘You want to play the higher part?’ At the end of the show, we do the guitar shoot-out on The End, with Paul, Rusty and me doing solos. I come in last, so I do the John Lennon parts.”
You guys extend those solos live.
“It just keeps going around and around as long as Paul feels like it. Sometimes it’s short, sometimes it’s long. For the first sequence, we start off kind of note-for-note, and then we do whatever we want.”
Let’s go back to your album. I’m curious about your songwriting influences. Who would you say had a big impact on you?
“Oh, wow, good question. I’d never thought about that, actually. I mean, obviously Lennon and McCartney. And then there’s Ray Davies. Those are the main influences. [Laughs] These are such Boomer answers. I also like John Hiatt and, of course, Dylan, not that my songwriting is anywhere near what they do. There’s a British singer-songwriter named James Hunter who’s fantastic. He does sort of retro R&B, rock and soul. His lyrics are as tight as those great Leiber and Stoller songs.”
Are you generally a fast writer, or do you labor over songs?
I was a blond, smiley kid from Glendale, California, but I wanted to be Robert De Niro because I thought that’s what the girls liked
“I’m pretty fast. Sometimes it starts with a guitar lick, but it could be a vocal melody or lyric idea. I try to figure out what the song is about, and then I’m good. In the case of Bad 4 U, it’s basically autobiographical. I was a blond, smiley kid from Glendale, California, but I wanted to be Robert De Niro because I thought that’s what the girls liked.”
Break down the collaboration between you and Steven Van Zandt on that song.
“Steven really nailed down the lyrical aspect without making the protagonist come off as weak. He wanted the kid, who is me, to keep his strength. Now, I thought I had the music all done, but Steven said, ‘This lyric, you’ve got to move it into the chorus. We have to hear the chorus in a big way, because it’s everything.’
“I didn’t want to do it at first because I thought I was finished, but then I was like, ‘Goddammit, he’s right. That’s a better idea.’ He was great about hooks moving into hooks. He understands that so well.”
You mentioned your Les Paul Special. What other guitars did you use on the new tracks?
I like vintage stuff; it just sounds better. On some things I played a Hofner bass – don’t tell Paul
“On Bad 4 U, the main guitar in the intro is my 1965 Epiphone Casino. It’s got a Silver Fox finish, which makes it pretty rare. I think only one or two of them were ever made like that. What else did I use? Les Pauls and SGs. I like vintage stuff; it just sounds better. On some things I played a Hofner bass – don’t tell Paul. [Laughs] Sometimes I used Fender basses and a Vox Phantom IV bass.”
You mentioned how you lost that Shakira tour over your desire to fly business class. I assume much of your travel with Paul is by way of private jets.
“Paul is very generous, and he takes really good care of us. He takes us on little excursions between dates when we’re out in the middle of nowhere. He’ll find some cool resort to take us to, which is lovely. It’s a combination of every kind of travel you can imagine.”
No complaints there, huh?
“Oh, no. None at all.”
