Paul McCartney says Johnny Cash inspired him to form Wings: “It was a real act of faith”
nme.comPaul McCartney has credited Johnny Cash for inspiring him to form Wings.McCartney told MOJO in a new interview that he turned to Cash for inspiration when he found himself at a crossroads once The Beatles were done.“After the end of The Beatles I was faced with certain alternatives,” he says. “One was to give up music entirely and do God knows what.
Another was to start a super-band with very famous people, Eric Clapton and so on. I didn’t like either so I thought: How did The Beatles start?”“It was a bunch of mates who didn’t know what they were doing,” he continued. “That’s when I realised maybe there is a third alternative: to get a band that isn’t massively famous, to not worry if we don’t know what we’re doing because we would form our character by learning along the way.
It was a real act of faith. It was crazy, actually.”McCartney then said he watched Johnny Cash one night with his wife, Linda, and found his idea for a new band.“We were in bed one night,” he said, “newly married, when Johnny Cash came on the telly with a new band he’d formed with Carl Perkins, a big hero of mine.
There they were, playing with some country musicians I had never heard of, looking like they were having fun.”“I thought: here’s Johnny, he’s back, he’s doing it.
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