Rick Rubin calls Paul McCartney the best bass player of all time
“In my opinion… he’s number one.”
Image: David Lefranc / Getty Images
Beatles star Paul McCartney is the best bass player of all time. Or so says legendary producer Rick Rubin, whose genre-spanning career included collabs with Red Hot Chili Peppers, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and more.
Speaking to MOJO magazine in a new interview, Rubin sang praises of McCartney’s approach to songwriting, and called the man “the best of all bass players” he’s seen (via NME). The pair had previously teamed up on the 2021 mini series, McCartney 3, 2, 1.
“I thought about how everything I’ve seen, Beatles-related, is either about the songwriting or Beatlemania,” Rubin said. “Paul McCartney the bass player, or Paul McCartney the musician, because he plays everything – that’s a little story told.”
“You just think of him as Beatle Paul, yet in my opinion, he is the best of all bass players, he’s number one.”
The producer also described the ‘mind-blowing’ experience of witnessing McCartney’s songwriting prowess in person, saying “What blew my mind was when he sat at the piano and he started showing me how to write a song”
“He was saying, ‘See, you could it like this’, and what he was showing me was the simplest thing, but then he starts moving his fingers around slightly, and all of a sudden it evolves into ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘Let It Be’. He’s using this technique that any child could do, then it morphs into one of the greatest songs of all time.”