“I first went to meet them at the Scotch Of St James club in London [in January 1972] and played for three days. At the end, Paul said, ‘D’you want to join the band?’ I was a little bit intimidated. But I wasn’t scared. He was easy to be about if you were in the gang, y’know. After a month or two, you got used to his face.

One of the first things we did was Mary Had A Little Lamb. I was just coming off the road after three years in America with Joe Cocker and I end up playing Mary Had A Little Fucking Lamb. But he put it to me that this was the sort of thing that he would do for his daughters, a kids’ thing. So we committed ourselves. It was like swearing on the Bible almost. Paul explained how he was going to do it. Just the thought of going out on the road with this band was real exciting for everyone.

When we took off to do that university tour [in February 1972, with Wings turning up unannounced at student unions and asking to play], it was like a black and white Sgt. Pepper.

You went to the promenade and you stayed with Mrs McGonagall. There was dogs, there was kids. We were all out to have a great time and play music. But I think the setlist had nine numbers (laughs).

With Linda, I must say – and I’m quite ashamed of it – that I did mention that maybe we should get in a proper piano player. Paul basically said, ‘Linda’s the wife, y’know, and I’m fucking driving this boat, so just keep quiet.’ It was never brought up again, on my part anyway. I think we were all nervous, y’know.

The first gig was Nottingham. I remember the reaction when the social secretary had a look in the van – slide the door open and there’s Paul McCartney sitting there. It was a big deal for them, but it was also a big deal for us. It was like, ‘This is it, the first fucking gig.’ It was 50p to get in. After the gig, we were like children. Two for you and two for you, all 50ps. You walked out of the university and your trousers were tripping you. It was just as exciting travelling in a green Transit as it was in a fucking Rolls. You probably had more room in the van.

The Wings Over Europe tour that summer was fantastic. We travelled in an open-top bus all painted real psychedelic. Bit of dope in the fridge. Magical. The lounge was upstairs and it was carpeted and had big cushions. Downstairs was bunks made up for the kids. A couple of times the promoters had to send cars out for us to get us to the gig on time because the bus only went so fast. It was like a holiday. You don’t have to do anything but go on-stage and play your arse off. What a dream. ‘I’m just gonna lie upstairs for a while, boys, and smoke me pipe. I’ll be down at four o’clock.’ Paul was as straight as the rest of us (laughs).

The dope bust happened in Gothenburg. There was something sent through the mail from London. Whoever was looking after the package didn’t look after it well enough and consequently by the time it got to the hotel, there was twigs sticking out of it. We did the gig and the last number you could see these guys running round the top of the auditorium with rifles. We’re thinking, What’s going on? And we never got to the dressing room. [Paul, Linda and Denny Seiwell – whose name was on the package – were fined a total of $1,800].

I quit the band after an argument with Paul on the farm in Scotland in 1973, just before they went off to Nigeria to do Band On The Run. I got fed up with everything really. You didn’t play anything other than what you were shown to play. Every solo was exactly the same on every tune. I packed my guitar and put my amp in the boot and drove down to London. I walked out on him and it was the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“I played on Ram in New York [in 1971] and then Paul said, ‘Would you and your wife like to come over to Scotland and have a little holiday?’ While we were there, he said, ‘Y’know, I’m putting a band together.’ The university tour was his way of saying, ‘OK, let’s get out there and do it. Just like The Beatles did. We’ve gotta start somewhere. So let’s jump in a van. We didn’t have enough songs and we had to repeat a couple. We did Lucille and some of the old standards that The Beatles used to do, just to kill time (laughs).

Paul wanted to give the world a look at square one, starting all over again. And it’s commendable for somebody who’s as huge an icon as Paul McCartney to leave The Beatles and then just start over with some unknown band and having his wife playing keyboards. After The Beatles, that was kind of cheeky.

Give Ireland Back To The Irish was his social statement… brilliant, right on. Mary Had A Little Lamb on the other hand – we’re supposed to be a rock band! I said, What’s with all this shit? But he had a daughter named Mary, he had lambs on his farm…

Dope smoking? We were lightweight if you compared us to a lot of other bands at the time. We enjoyed a bit of the herb for creative consciousness, you know what I’m saying? But we weren’t Bob Marley And The Wailers.

Linda wasn’t an important element musically. But she was a necessity. She was Paul’s security blanket, his inspiration, his wife and mother of his kids. I’ve seen her cry on my shoulder because of the criticisms. But she had a lot of chutzpah. She wasn’t much of a piano player or a singer, but boy she had the heart for it. And over time, she got better.

Paul had some musical differences with Henry. I didn’t have any of that. Financially, it was difficult. We were selling records, we were touring, but there was a huge underlying problem – the business of The Beatles’ break-up and the court receivership. We were all working on retainers that were hard to live on, for being one of the top bands in the world. We worked for £70 a week, but I was making £2,000 a week in New York as a session guy.

As close as we were, that stuff is difficult to talk about. There was a lot of unsaid stuff going on. It probably was the beginning of the demise of Wings. We didn’t have agreements in writing. That was why I left, just after Henry. It’s one of the few things in my life I regret doing.”

This article originally appeared in Issue 239 of MOJO