Denny Laine (Wings, Moody Blues)

Denny Laine was the one full-time Wings member whose last name isn’t McCartney—as well as a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee with the Moody Blues. Wings went through multiple lineup changes during the 1970s, and for Band on the Run and much of London Town, the band was down to just Paul and Linda McCartney and Laine. Which Wings lineup does Laine consider the strongest? What was co-writing with McCartney like? How did they come to write and record “Mull of Kintyre,” and were they surprised when it became, at the time, the biggest-ever British hit single? Did they work better without an outside producer? Did McCartney’s cannabis arrest in Japan mark the end of Wings? Laine co-wrote “No Words” but has plenty of good ones in this Caropop conversation.