Flaming Pie sessions at Steve Miller's home studio

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Paul McCartney first collaborated with Steve Miller in 1969 during the recording of song “My Dark Hour“. In 1993, the two of them met again during the Earth Day concert. Surely this recent meeting had influenced Paul to think about Steve Miller to help him on what would become the “Flaming Pie” album. On the “Flaming Pie – Archive Collection” book, it is also mentioned that Paul’s son – James – had recently “started getting into Miller’s music” and it has been the trigger to call.

And then years later I rang him up, ‘I’ve got a couple of songs – do you want to record together again?’ I like him, I admire him, I love his music, he’s a great singer, guitar player, songwriter… He’s a nice guy to be around, but he’s also super-talented

Paul McCartney, from the “Flaming Pie – Archive Collection” book, 2020

Linda (McCartney) called up one day from Bermuda or someplace and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Just sitting here reading a book. How you been? I haven’t talked to you in a while.’ She said, ‘Paul’s working on this album, and we’d really like you to sing harmony on it.’ I said, ‘Come on over; I’ve got a studio.’ They showed up and spent a couple of weeks here. Then I flew over to his studio for 10 days and played some guitar. When we played together in 1969 we really did some pretty interesting work. I don’t think Paul had played with very many people. I don’t think he had a very broad range of people he felt comfortable working with. And we were really comfortable. We were just kicking out the jams. He was playing drums; I was playing guitar. That’s the way we start our stuff. On his stuff he had some basic tracks and wanted harmony.

Steve Miller interviewed by Mark Brow

Steve Miller then invited him over to his studio, in Sun Valley, Idaho. Paul travelled there with Linda, engineer Geoff Emerick and John Hammel. They started working together on February 18, 1995.

We started listening to the new stuff – it sounded great. I pulled out all the Martin guitars, we sat down, he showed me the songs and the next thing I knew I was sitting there strumming rhythm guitar and singing with Paul on a Paul McCartney tune. That was a really special thing, because he’s such a great writer.

Steve Miller, from the “Flaming Pie – Archive Collection” book, 2020

I got in a perfectionist mode. “No, let me do that again, I can do it better” – and he was going, “Nah, we’re done, that’s great”. Paul is about getting right to it and doing it. When you’re Paul McCartney and you sound that good and everything, I can see how you can do that. For me, I had to go, “If you like it, that’s good enough”.

Steve Miller, from the “Flaming Pie – Archive Collection” book, 2020

During those first sessions together, they principally worked on “Young Boy“.

In the 2020 Flaming Pie Archive Collection book, it is mentioned that Steve Miller remembers that “Broomstick” was the result of a jam when they were in Idaho. The formal recording for the song would, however, start in May, when Steve Miller would visit Paul in Sussex. That visit was indeed agreed at the end of the Idaho trip.

They said, can you come over and do some guitar parts and maybe sing some more.

Steve Miller, from the “Flaming Pie – Archive Collection” book, 2020

Last updated on January 28, 2021

Related sessions

Recording "Young Boy"

Started Feb 22, 1995 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Flaming Pie

Songs recorded