The Beatles and Elvis Presley were two of the biggest acts in music history. So imagine how powerful they’d be if they’d gotten together. Well, they sort of did. Paul McCartney owns a bass guitar used in Elvis’s band and he still uses it on albums as recently as McCartney III.
McCartney was a guest on The Zane Lowe Interview Series podcast on Dec. 24, 2020 to discuss McCartney III. Lowe saw the bass in McCartney’s background and the former Beatle told the story.
The Elvis Presley bass that Paul McCartney owns
Bill Black was a bass player in Presley’s band on the recordings for “Heartbreak Hotel,” “That’s All Right,” “Hound Dog,” and more. Black died of a brain tumor in 1965 at the age of 39. The late Linda McCartney gifted Black’s bass to Paul in the ‘70s.
“That stand up bass is no joke,” McCartney told Lowe. “That is the Elvis Presley bass played by Bill Black. If you check out the album cover, Elvis Presley Vol. 1, you will see that bass on the cover with the white trim. That’s actually Bill Black’s bass.”
Paul McCartney played the Elvis Presley bass on this ‘McCartney III’ track and more
McCartney named one of the tracks from McCartney III that features the Elvis bass. He alluded to many more so see if you can hear it.
“I played it on the new album,” McCartney said. “I love it. On a couple of songs, ‘Women and Wives’ it’s on. It’s on a few songs but it’s a beautiful, deep bass.”
An emotional connection to guitars
The guitar was neither the first nor last instrument McCartney learned in his storied music career. Piano came later, but his first instrument was a brass.
“I love instruments,” McCartney said. “The first instrument I ever had was my dad gave me a trumpet and he’d been a trumpet player when he was younger. He played a little trumpet and it actually was in fashion. There was a film called The Man with the Golden Arm, Harry James, it was kind of glamorous at that point but I realized I couldn’t sing with this thing in my mouth. So I swapped it in for a guitar. That started my love of guitars.
The guitar remains an emotional instrument for McCartney. This gives you some idea of how much he reveres Black’s bass.
“They’re really a great help when you’re growing up because you’ve got so many questions and things flooding in,” McCartney said. “If you can get off in a quiet space with a guitar, you kind of can tell your troubles to the guitar. Often in doing that, you come out the other end, oh, it’s a song. We used to think it was the greatest therapy.”
