James Bay on Failed Solos, Onstage Adrenaline, and How to Hire a Band
Wong Notes
Premier Guitar
4.9 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode, James Bay joins Cory Wong from backstage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. (It takes Wong all of 10 seconds to recognize and name the green room.) Bay is still supporting his fourth full-length record, Changes All the Time, and Wong picked up on a different guitar approach on the new album. Bay walks him through how his playing matched the collection’s title.
Bay also reveals the first solo he learned to play (or, rather, failed to learn to play; it’s a Bon Jovi hit), and how Jack White’s philosophy of struggle against his instrument has shaped Bay’s relationship to his own guitars. As bandleaders, Wong and Bay both have plenty of experience hiring players to join them in studio and on the road, so what do they look for when selecting colleagues? Tune in to find out.
It wouldn’t be a chat with a Minnesotan guitarist without some Prince talk, so stick around to learn the appropriate etiquette for covering The Artist when touring his home state.
Listen to the full episode here: https://bit.ly/WongNotes
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Presented by DistroKid
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's happening? Welcome to Wong Notes podcast. I am your host, Corey Wong. I hope you're doing well today. I just got back from New York City. I was just there for Wolfpack, the RugSale, live at Madison Square Garden. It was amazing. Thank you so much for all of you who came. It was incredible night to remember. |
| 0:21.7 | We had Bernard Purdy up there. That was a blast. He even gave his little Purdy shuffle spiel. |
| 0:28.6 | Played it for us. That was a blast. You know what else I did? By the way, this has nothing to do with music or guitar. |
| 0:35.6 | The Museum of Natural History. That place is so dope. It is a |
| 0:41.1 | highly recommended place to go see if you're ever going to visit New York City. That's all. |
| 0:46.2 | I'm just telling you that. Here's why I'm mentioning that on the podcast. I truly believe |
| 0:50.8 | that in order to expand your creativity and continue inspiration for yourself as a |
| 1:00.2 | musician and as a guitarist, you should absorb different art forms and different expressions of |
| 1:06.0 | creativity, things that are not just music. The displays there are incredible. |
| 1:11.6 | They have a set that's built, and then it goes into a painting with like a curved wall, |
| 1:17.6 | and it's painted in perspective, and it's also got lighting that enhances it, |
| 1:22.6 | where it all just kind of feels like you're looking at one, it feels like you're looking through the window into the world that whatever is on display |
| 1:32.3 | lives in. |
| 1:33.5 | It's incredible. |
| 1:34.7 | There's so much amazing stuff there. |
| 1:36.3 | The planetarium was amazing. |
| 1:38.9 | I'm not being, I got no ad. |
| 1:41.1 | This is not a hashtag ad. |
| 1:42.9 | Okay? |
| 1:43.3 | There's nothing here. |
| 1:44.1 | I'm just saying it purely is not a hashtag ad. Okay? There's nothing here. |
| 1:49.2 | I'm just saying it purely as a recommendation to expand your creative mind. |
... |
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