It’s not the first time Nuno Bettencourt shared his admiration towards The Beatles and Paul McCartney. Besides McCartney, the guitarist mentioned Led Zeppelin as the other significant name of the genre to A Radio Rock, where he said:
“I think Gary [Cherone] and I would agree that we have our favorites Queen and Aerosmith and Van Halen and The Who, but I think if there were the pages of rock and roll that we said, ‘Okay, who is at the front and the back of the book?‘ I think we would agree it will probably be The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, and that’s the pop side of things, and here’s the rock and roll side, and then everybody else is just in the middle.
So I think anything to do with [Jimmy] Page or [Robert] Plant or [Paul] McCartney, [John] Lennon, of course, [Freddie] Mercury and Brian [May] made all this stuff, but there’s something about McCartney and The Beatles that is just so up there.”
Although Led Zeppelin takes one side of the book in Nuno’s eyes, it seems that McCartney will always have a special spot. He added:
“It’s mythological and isn’t even real, so when I had to be in a room with Paul McCartney for three days, I had to talk to myself all the time before I walked in and just go, it’s not real. It’s not really him. It’s just a hologram. Don’t get too excited, but when he’s right here, and he’s singing with you, he’s playing with you, it’s like you’re having this bizarre dream. It’s insane.”
The guitarist recently shared with Scott Lipps his experience meeting and working with Paul when Jay Brown had offered him the opportunity. Nuno recalled that day:
“He comes in, and he’s like, ‘What’s up man, let’s play,’ and he gives you a big hug and a kiss, and he gives a hug to the guy mopping the floor. No ego, no nothing; it was just amazing. He was like a 17-year-old walking in there like youthful, and he’s like, ‘Let’s play, let’s jam man,’ and he pulls his guitar, and he’s asking me how this song goes, and I’m showing him four or five seconds.”
You can watch the A Radio Rock and Scott Lipps interviews below.
