He can walk down any busy street; mingle with the rush hour sardines on the 5:30 tubes; shop in Marks; and Sparks without going incognito, and he wouldn't get mobbed.
Yet Jimmy McCulloch, guitarist with Wings, is a star in his own right. Recently he literally stopped the Wings American tour with one tiny finger. He slipped in the bathroom and injured his left hand which had to be kept in plaster for three weeks, causing Wings to rearrange their mammoth US tour. Not many 22 year olds could brag about that.
Jimmy's track record makes him a baby veteran among the rock elite: At 13 he joined a Glasweigan group, One In A Million. He left Scotland for London to join Thunderclap Newman. Played on the number one single, 'Something in the Air' and composed the title track of 'Hollywood Dream'. He toured with John Mayall and later joined Stone the Crows.
Jimmy joined Wings just after 'Band on the Run' was recorded. He was around when the album was mixed in London and was asked by Paul if he would like to play on his brother, Mike McGear's album.
"After that," Jimmy recalls, "Paul came up and said 'fancy joining the band,' and I said 'sure'. Stone the Crows had split up and I wasn't working with any other bands."
Writing He has since worked on both 'Venus and Mars' and 'Wings At The Speed of Sound', writing one song for each album.
"I've been up since three this morning" (and it shows!) "writing songs on my own," he says. "I'm getting more involved in writing."
Meanwhile the rest of the band are either resting up after their strenuous American tour, or working on their own projects.
"We usually go our separate ways when nothing's happening. I sometimes get real bored if I have nothing to do. What I'd love to do in my spare time is get amongst other people, do a bit of jamming."
America the Beautiful completely flipped over Wings on the recent US tour. It was Jimmy's first time experience of monster-sized stadiums, and the tour impressed him immensely.
"It was my first time and it was great. Gigs that stood out most in my mind were Seattle -- a 67,000 indoor seater, just like playing at Wembley with a roof on it -- Madison Square and Cincinatti.
"The audiences were very receptive. They would listen but were also responsive. We had a couple of people screaming and jumping in the air, or trying to fly on the stage. But overall it was quite mellow."
Obviously Jimmy is in an enviable position, playing with the living legend Paul McCartney. But even a genius can be ordinary-blokes-next-door, as Jimmy points out.
"I'm not in awe of the bloke," he says candidly.
"Sure he's a genius, but to me he's just a bloke who plays great bass and sings. He's a person, right?"
Right. And Wings ain't just McCartney -- period. It's a five piece unit, each of whom contribute their own ideas. This is very much in evidence on Wings' latest album 'Speed of Sound' which is more of a unified group effort than previous albums.
"We're more like how a band should be," he says.
"In Wings there's plenty of freedom to play your own way, a lot of free expression. We experiment with lots of things."
"Actually I find being in the studio bloody boring, and I'm always relieved when it's over. My forte is being on the road. I get much more of a buzz out of that."
As yet there aren't any plans for Wings to tour Britain. But if things materialise it might happen around Christmas.
"The last British tour was great. Hopefully this time around we'll be able to play bigger venues, like Wembley Empire Pool," he says.
From what I can gather, Jimmy seems to be well settled in the band, and I doubt if he'll want to give it up for anything.
"Oh I'll stay until it finishes," he affirms.
"Wings is really, really tightening up and it would be a shame if anyone left right now. We're really beginning to get to know each other musically. If Wings are still around in five, even 10 years, then I'll be there."
