Interview for dopeYEAH talk

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On the show today, we’ve got Blair Cunningham – in my view, one of the best drummers in the world. He’s played with everyone from Paul McCartney to the Pretenders, Sade, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, among many others. I’m proud to say he’s also a personal friend of mine. Blair, welcome to the show!

Blair Cunningham: Welcome, welcome, welcome! How you doing, man? Could you put that gun down before I start talking? [laughs] I’m good, just trying to acclimatize to this weather. Tonight I’m playing at the Do Club. Nobody told me anything!

You’ve been in Prague before?

Yeah, I did a gig with Muriel Murket. Really good memories, very sad that he passed away.

And you’re here with your old amigos.

Yeah – Robbie [McIntosh] and Hamish [Stuart]. We call ourselves the Three Amigos. We played with McCartney together for years. That was a lot of fun.

At the beginning it was funny. I got a phone call: “McCartney wants you to come down.” I thought, “Okay, maybe he just wants me to do a couple of drum tracks before I head to America.” I get there, and he walks in: “Hey, Blair Cunningham.” I’m like, “That’s me!”

He said, “There’s no audition, just jam with the guys.” Luckily, I didn’t have that “Oh my god, it’s Paul McCartney” moment – because I’d already played with Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, all these big names. But he still got me.

When we rehearsed The Long and Winding Road, it hit me: “Holy shit, that’s really him.” My mum used to love that song and always said, “Life is a long and winding road.” That moment floored me.

Paul’s such a funny guy once you really know him. We’d rehearse, and suddenly you’d look around – Robbie, Hamish, all these great players – and think, “How did I get here?”

You’d be on tour and bump into stars – Jack Nicholson with the Pretenders, Madonna when she was starting out with Sean Penn. It was surreal.

One time with McCartney in St. Louis, Chuck Berry showed up. Paul’s son James and I had camcorders, filming the limos arriving. Chuck gets out, looks at us like, “No, no, no, no.” Later, Paul introduced us: “That’s my son James, and that’s Blair, my drummer.” I caught Chuck Berry on tape – amazing history for me.

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You’ve done thousands of shows. What was the worst gig and the best gig?

The worst was with the Pretenders when the bass drum head went mid-stadium show. Straight away I used the floor tom as a bass drum. The monitor guy was lost, looking for the kick. It was panic – but luckily Pretenders songs are straight rock and roll, so I got away with it.

The best? Too many. But one that stood out was in Mexico with McCartney. The whole stadium had lighters going, perfectly in time with the snare – like a giant metronome. Paul looked at me like, “Don’t lose it!” It was magical – like stars in the crowd.

If you could put together a dream lineup – excluding Robbie and Hamish – who would you choose?

Billy Joel, I love his style. Paul on bass – he’s a phenomenal bass player, people forget that. In the studio on Hope of Deliverance he suddenly flipped it into a reggae groove, looking at me and laughing. I’d never seen playing like that.

At Abbey Road, listening to Beatles masters, when you solo the drums they sounded way behind the beat – but when you added Paul’s bass, everything locked perfectly in time. Unbelievable. That tightness came from Hamburg days – hours and hours of club sets together.

On tour with Paul, sometimes I’d lose focus. In Drive My Car, I once got distracted reading signs in the audience, lost my place, and stopped mid-verse. Robbie came over at soundcheck the next day: “We’ve got to sort this, buddy.” Lesson learned – stay in the circle.

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