The Night Paul McCartney Was Robbed of his Demos at Knife Point

Creating the perfect album can be like trying to capture lightening in a bottle. It’s difficult to achieve even one time around. Now imagine having to try and recreate that same magic a second time. That’s the feat Paul McCartney pulled off while writing Band on the Run.

This Wings album is among McCartney’s most celebrated works, but did you know that it almost didn’t come to fruition? A scary encounter with some muggers in Nigeria nearly stopped this album in its tracks. Read more about the incident, below.

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The Night Paul McCartney Was Robbed of his Demos at Knife Point

McCartney and what was left of Wings (a couple of band members decided to quit just prior to making Band on the Run) decided to head to Nigeria to work on this album. What was meant to be an inspiring change of scenery soon turned sour.

After fleshing out the album a bit, McCartney and his then-wife and bandmate, Linda, walked home. As they got closer, a car pulled up beside them, seemingly offering them a lift home. After one of the passengers flashed a knife, the pair quickly realized this wasn’t the act of a Good Samaritan.

“There’s, like, about four or five of them and then there’s a little one and he’s got a knife,” McCartney once said. “So we go, ‘Oh, you’re not offering us a lift at all! You’re robbing us.’ So I had all my demo cassettes for the album and they took them all… I had to remember the songs. Luckily I did. I’d written them not too long ago so I’d kind of remembered them.”

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Despite having to recreate the album (which runs the risk of it becoming watered down), McCartney and his bandmates created a stellar work. In fact, many people consider it one of his best albums post-Beatles.

Among the tracklist for Band on the Run is the title track, of course, “Jet,” and “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” among other celebrated McCartney songs. Needless to say, it would’ve been a real waste if McCartney had decided to give up when the demos were stolen. There is something inspirational to be found in this story of creative resilience.

Revisit the title track, below.

Photo by Evening News/Shutterstock