Pick Up the Pieces: Hamish Stuart Levels Abuse Charges at Paul McCartney

Former Paul McCartney sideman and Average White Band leader Hamish Stuart ended years of silence following his dismissal from McCartney’s band, leveling charges of musical and emotional abuse and threatening to petition for full custody of the Hofner “Beatle” bass they shared during the Flowers in the Dirt tour.

The charges were contained in an addendum to a 13-page court document filed previously by Mr. Stuart, said London’s Daily Mail. A copy of the original document was faxed to news organizations by an anonymous source Monday night. Details of the addendum were leaked to the Daily Mail yesterday.

In the original 13-page document Mr. Stuart claimed that Mr. McCartney had forced him to cancel a crucial hair salon appointment because the appointment would have interfered with Mr. McCartney’s planned rehearsal of “Live and Let Die” with pyrotechnics. Mr. Stuart also charged that Mr. McCartney had refused to let him keep a spittoon by the side of the stage.

“I don’t want that stinking thing up here because it makes the stage smell like a f*ck*ng old man’s home,” Mr. McCartney is alleged to have said when Mr. Stuart pleaded with him to let him use the spittoon.

Mr. Stuart also claimed in his original document that Mr. McCartney had tormented him after destroying Mr. Stuart’s favorite acoustic guitar.

“Paul asked me if I wanted to play ‘Pick Up the Pieces’, by which I assumed he meant my best-known song with AWB. Of course, I told him. Then he smashed my Gibson to bloody bits and said, ‘Go ahead, pick up the pieces!'”

Mr. Stuart further alleged that Mr. McCartney had forbidden him to accommodate autograph requests from female fans.

“They’re my breasts to sign,” Mr. McCartney is reputed to have said. “I don’t want to have to fit my signature around your stinking Scottish scrawl!”

As troubling as these revelations are, Mr. Stuart’s new allegations play even greater havoc with Mr. McCartney’s reputation. Instead of a cuddly duffer whose chief vices are weed, wine, and writing treacly pop songs, Mr. McCartney emerges as the second coming of Buddy Rich — a controlling, insecure monster, envious of other musicians and given to fits of near psychotic pomposity.

According to Mr. Stuart, Mr. McCartney bore an intense resentment toward his former bandmate, Denny Laine. Mr. Stuart charged that Mr. McCartney flew into a rage when he found him listening to an early Moody Blues CD.

“I don’t ever want to hear that c*unt’s music in my house again,” Mr. McCartney allegedly screamed. “He was shite, you hear? Shite. I carried him while Wings were together. I carried the other Wings too.”

Mr. McCartney then subjected Mr. Stuart to a “painfully loud” 10-minute imitation of Linda McCartney singing.

The charges against Mr. McCartney have been difficult for his fans to accept. One 50-something woman in a North London record shop said, “It’s bad enough he made Hamish give up his spittoon, but I’m shocked by his language. Such filth. Did he write ‘Bluebird’ with that mouth?”