The Zutons’ Dave McCabe on how Amy Winehouse telling him to “fuck off” led to her covering ‘Valerie’
The Zutons‘ Dave McCabe has recounted how Amy Winehouse telling him to “fuck off” led to her iconic cover of their song ‘Valerie’.
In NME‘s latest series of Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?!, in which we quiz musicians on their own career to see how much they can remember, the Zutons frontman opened up about how the cover came to be.
“I met Amy three times in my life,” he recalled. “Once at the Mercury Prize, once in the Camden boozer The Hawley Arms, and once when I was hanging around with this Brummie lad called Boo, who was a tit.
“He spent all night comparing me to her, saying: ‘If you’re a 1, she’s a 10’. I thought: ‘OK, I get it, she’s good’. Eventually, I said ‘Look Boo, fuck off being a wanker. You’ve done this for hours and it’s pissing me off’, and Amy turned round and said: ‘Well, you fuck off then!’ to me, because he was her mate.
“So, I walked out of the house in the strop, and she followed me and pleaded: ‘Please come back. I’m sorry I told you to fuck off,” he continued. “I really like that song’ [‘Valerie’]. We went back in and carried on drinking.”
McCabe went on to say he had “a lot to thank Amy Winehouse for”, but also thanked his friend Boo: “If he wasn’t being a wanker, we wouldn’t have got talking about the song and I don’t think she would have covered it. So thanks Boo – he made me a 10! [Laughs]”
The Zutons’ first album in 13 years, ‘The Big Decider’, will be out on April 26. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the album was produced by Nile Rodgers, which McCabe has previously praised as an “amazing experience”.
“Normally we’re arguing by now and just saying really nasty things to each other,” McCabe told NME. “I think Nile’s bringing the best out of us as a band.”
Thanks to the “advantage of a past success”, the band were able to send the acclaimed Chic co-founder their music.
“He came back and he loved them, and next thing we were on a Zoom with him,” he explained. “That was like, ‘OK, we’re doing something right and it feels good’. Having Nile on board is a massive confidence boost.”
In other news, NME has produced a guide to Amy Winehouse’s Camden in anticipation her upcoming biopic ‘Back To Black‘. The movie will land in UK/Ireland cinemas on April 12.
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Alex Rigotti
NME
