Paul McCartney’s Grammy Jam Chronicled in ‘A Death in the Family: The Show Must Go On’ Documentary

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were one of the more trying events to pull together in the history of the ceremony, and a new documentary is chronicling how it all came together.

While the early portion of the ‘A Death in the Family: The Show Must Go On’ documentary discusses how the death of Whitney Houston just prior to this year’s event led to a lot of last minute changes, there were also performances that came together rather quickly as well. One of those was Paul McCartney‘s star-studded Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ jam ['Golden Slumbers' / 'Carry That Weight' / 'The End'], which was a highlight of the evening.

Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, and Bruce Springsteen were all invited to take part in the days leading up to the ceremony. For Springsteen, the last person to join the jam, it was the culmination of a lifelong wish. The vocalist says that his manager Jon Landau got the call and asked him thoughts on participating. The singer laughingly recalls the conversation with Landau, explaining, “He says he’s got a guitar part for you to play, you know. So he says what should I say? I said, ‘Well Paul McCartney was one of the Beatles, is that correct?’ and Jon says ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Well, then you say yes.’”

Springsteen says there was a brief backstage meeting in which he got to relay the fact that he had been waiting for that call to play guitar with McCartney since 1964.

As for Grohl, the request was also as shocking for the Foo Fighters leader. He recalled, “I can’t believe that me of all people will have this opportunity to go play with McCartney, who, if it weren’t for the Beatles and Paul’s position, I wouldn’t have learned how to play music. So to me that was just such a full-circle moment as a person.”

Joe Walsh speaks about seeing the Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1964 and the life-changing experience it was for him. At the time Walsh was just learning to play guitar and he says the Beatles gave him something to identify with.

The full ‘A Death in the Family: The Show Must Go On’ documentary is currently online here.