Fatboy Slim, the UK DJ and producer behind ’90s hits like “The Rockafeller Skank” and “Praise You,” put on a 2002 concert that would live in infamy. The show was at Brighton, England’s Brighton Beach and was attended by 200,000 people, well more than the expected 60,000. At that gig, one person died at at least 100 more were injured.
At the time, the artist (whose real name is Norman Quentin Cook) was neighbors with Paul McCartney, and now Cook has spoken about the advice that McCartney gave him at the time.
In a recent interview with NME, Cook said, “He told me to leave the country — that’s what he’d do when things got on top of him.”
This advice came after, as NME notes, Cook became tabloid fodder following the tragic event.
He continued, “It’s always bizarre having Paul McCartney as a neighbor, especially if you’re as much of a Beatles fan as me. Whenever he’d walk through the back door saying, ‘Only me! Just popped in for a cuppa,’ I’d be singing ‘Hey Jude’ in my head the whole way through! He’s a lovely man and like the dad I always wanted.”
As for McCartney, he recently won a Creative Arts Emmy Award, putting him just one step away from the coveted EGOT.