--- title: What Paul McCartney Had to Say About That Quincy Jones Diss description: Paul McCartney said Quincy Jones is “totally out of his tree.” canonical: https://time.com/5392625/paul-mccartney-on-quincy-jones/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-11T16:47:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:47.511Z og:title: What Paul McCartney Had to Say About That Quincy Jones Diss og:description: The former Beatle has plenty to say about being called the worst og:url: https://time.com/5392625/paul-mccartney-on-quincy-jones/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte477b552495cf2d2/698939e4e76ad23de7632f3a/paulmccatneyonquincyjones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 5 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Paul McCartney Had to Say About That Quincy Jones Diss twitter:description: The former Beatle has plenty to say about being called the worst twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte477b552495cf2d2/698939e4e76ad23de7632f3a/paulmccatneyonquincyjones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul McCartney Does Not Hold Back With His Response to That Quincy Jones Diss > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=61f62e24-7e7b-48d5-bbd6-6fc92f73ff8d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 11, 2018 4:47 PM UTC  Paul McCartney performs "Come On To Me" on September 6, 2018 -- (Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC) Paul McCartney performs "Come On To Me" on September 6, 2018 -- (Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC) NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 11, 2018 4:47 PM UTC In August, music legend Quincy Jones spent a portion of his wide-ranging interview [with _New York_ _magazine’s Vulture_](http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/quincy-jones-in-conversation.html) bad-mouthing Sir Paul McCartney and [the Beatles](http://time.com/4822795/paul-mccartney-beatles-birthday-75/). In the interview, Jones called [the Beatles](http://time.com/5347052/paul-mccartney-abbey-road/) “no-playing motherf—-rs” who were “the worst musicians in the world,” and seemingly reserved special ire for McCartney himself, calling him “the worst bass player I ever heard.” Now, in an interview of [his own with _GQ_,](https://www.gq.com/story/the-untold-stories-of-paul-mccartney?mbid=social%5Ftwitter) McCartney laughed off the comments, saying that Jones is “totally out of his tree.” He then went on to say that Jones called him personally afterwards to both clear the air and deny ever saying the words. In the interview, McCartney recounted the night Jones called him and said,““I didn’t really say that thing—I don’t know what happened, man. I never said that. You know I love you guys!’ I said, ‘If you had said that, you know what I would have said? F–k you, Quincy Jones!’ And he laughed,” McCartney recounted. “So actually we just had a laugh. And he was like, ‘Oh, Paul, you know I love you so much.’ ‘Yeah, I know you do, Quince.’” While it’s hard to know what was going on in Jones’s head while sitting down with _Vulture_, at the end of the day, McCartney doesn’t harbor any hard feelings towards him. “The joke is, I love Quincy, even after this,” [McCartney](http://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/) told _GQ_. “He’s a crazy motherf–ker. But I respect him, he’s done a lot of very good things.” He couldn’t help but defend his bass playing, though. “I don’t think I’m the worst bass player he’s ever heard,” he said. “Or maybe he’s never heard bad bass players.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5392625/paul-mccartney-on-quincy-jones/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5392625/paul-mccartney-on-quincy-jones/"},"headline":"Paul McCartney Does Not Hold Back With His Response to That Quincy Jones Diss","datePublished":"2018-09-11T16:47:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:47.511Z","description":"Paul McCartney said Quincy Jones is “totally out of his tree.”","url":"https://time.com/5392625/paul-mccartney-on-quincy-jones/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Paul McCartney"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte477b552495cf2d2/698939e4e76ad23de7632f3a/paulmccatneyonquincyjones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte477b552495cf2d2/698939e4e76ad23de7632f3a/paulmccatneyonquincyjones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 5","caption":"Paul McCartney 2018","creditText":"NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5392625/paul-mccartney-on-quincy-jones/","name":"Paul McCartney Does Not Hold Back With His Response to That Quincy Jones Diss"}}]}] ```