“I WOULD NEVER CALL MYSELF A SINGER STANDING NEXT TO BEYONCÉ” GRAYSON HAVER CURRIN

On his favourite Beatle: “Absolutely 1,000 per cent Paul McCartney. Get Back proves what I’ve been saying since I was 13 – without Paul, there’s no Beatles. Everybody else is out-of-thisworld incredible. But you could theoretically take any other Beatle out of that band and still have The Beatles. You want to be on George’s side, for coolness. But it’s easy to be the guy in the room who doesn’t want to do anything. It’s really hard to be the one in the room who’s trying to motivate everybody. They don’t come off as cool. It’s a shame, because those are the people who make things happen. I’m not a fan of people who don’t want to do things. That’s demotivating.”

On The Rolling

Stones: “People want The Rolling Stones to be cool, dirty, raucous. They don’t want to understand that The Rolling Stones were chasing a hit constantly and feeding off whatever the hippest thing was, copying whatever The Beatles did last week. That disrupts the fantasy. And the fantasy’s

amazing – I have indulged many times with those kinds of bands. That’s not an insult. That’s them being smart and figuring out a way to keep a train moving.” On meeting Prince: “When you get to meet somebody like that, it’s never long enough. I come from an apprentice background, so my initial thought is, ‘I would stop what I’m doing now and follow you around and carry your guitar case for a week.’ He went into this Biblical thing about nobility. He told me, ‘Nobody can tell you how to play your guitar, Jack.’ I know that, but when you’re being told that by Prince, it’s different. You go, ‘Oh wait, maybe I don’t know that.’” On working with Beyoncé: “I would love to produce an entire record with Beyoncé. She’s like a modern Bessie Smith in her delivery and attitude. With a Beyoncé track, when you’re playing back stuff, it makes you think, ‘How dare you call yourself a singer?’ once you hear somebody do this. It should make everybody want to quit. I first experienced that with Loretta Lynn. I’m lucky enough that I consider myself a vocalist, not a singer. I would never call myself a singer standing next to someone like Beyoncé.”

On hip-hop: “On my block, if you’re playing four square, we’re listening to LL Cool J, the Real Roxanne, and EPMD. I didn’t buy many of those records. I was really into playing real drums, playing rock’n’roll. But after a while, you start realising those things are inside of you whether you like it or not. It’s the same thing with Latin music from the neighbourhood, too. Those rhythms and melodies are in your DNA. You can’t help it.”

“PRINCE TOLD ME, ‘NOBODY CAN TELL YOU HOW TO PLAY YOUR GUITAR, JACK.’”