How Metallica helped sell Paul McCartney on The Beatles: Rock Band

by Justin McElroy on Sep 7th 2009 9:00AM

If you come down with a chronic case of Beatlemania on Sept. 9, you could have someone unlikely to thank for it: Metallica. Speaking with The Guardian, Paul McCartney describes how Harmonix first started pitching him on the product way back in 2007, using Metallica (presumably one of the band's songs running in an earlier Guitar Hero title) as an example of what could be done with The Beatles: Rock Band.

There were "a couple of grown-ups standing looking very foolish with these little plastic guitars playing to a screen", McCartney says. "And we're going, 'Yeah, all right... It just looks like a really bad band.' They said: 'We really can do a great one with the Beatles, and we'll show you.' So Ringo and I got a bit intrigued."

So, when McCartney says they looked like a really bad band ... is he talking about the people playing or the guys on the screen? Because, yes.

Source

Tags: activision, ea, Electronic-Arts, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-metallica, harmonix, Microsoft, rock-band, the-beatles-rock-band, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (61)

oh shit, +1 for the first laugh of the day

Paul means that the Beatles is a BAD band! Period.

The demonstration to the Beatles was like the one that Harmonix presented to Metallica.

That is all the Guardian article states, nothing less and nothing more.

Wow, this a very poorly written post. Trying to start shit where there is none?

"Because, yes."

What? I've got a headache now.

"a couple of grown-ups standing looking very foolish with these little plastic guitars playing to a screen", McCartney says. "And we're going, 'Yeah, all right... It just looks like a really bad band.'

I think it's pretty clear that McCartney was saying that the guys holding the plastic "instruments" looked very foolish. A group of adults standing around holding plastic guitars looked like a horrible band.

This is coming from one of the greatest musicians and artists ever. Imagine being Jack Nichlaus or Tiger Woods watching a 52yr old holding a plastic handle and playing golf on the Wii. You look like an idiot and look foolish but it's not until someone gets you to try it and play it that you realize how fun it can be.