Paul McCartney played a new solo album for 30 fans in Los Angeles on Thursday night, April 16, and said one track carries a very able assist from Ringo Starr. The listening session, held at producer Andrew Watt’s Diamond Dust studio, ran for close to 90 minutes and moved song by song, with McCartney and Watt describing how each cut was made before the music played.
The album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is set for release May 29 on Capitol Records. McCartney told the room, “We’re going to play the album and we’re going to explain how we made it,” and later introduced his wife with a grin, saying, “Welcome my missus, Nancy.”
Watt said McCartney played nearly everything on the record himself, apart from strings and orchestration, a nod to the kind of self-contained work that has long marked his solo career. McCartney also said the record was cut in Los Angeles and England, giving the project a transatlantic footprint that fit the way he and Watt put it together.
The Starr link came during McCartney’s account of one track, when he said he had asked Watt whether he was going to bring in Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. “I said [to Watt], ‘Are you going to get [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad [Smith]?’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you have a go?’ And I did!” McCartney said. Watt backed up the story by noting that Starr gave the song a very able assist.
The session also offered a glimpse of how the partnership began. McCartney said Watt came to him through his manager for a cup of tea before they started working together, and he admitted his first impression was that the producer was “a bit pushy.” McCartney added, “And he is, but that’s what you want in a producer. You don’t want a shrinking violet.”
The Boys of Dungeon Lane will be McCartney’s first solo set since 2020, and the Los Angeles preview made clear he is treating it as a full-scale return rather than a casual side project. The answer to the night’s unspoken question was already in the room: Starr is on the record, and McCartney says the album is finished and arriving May 29.
