Beastie Boys Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz
expressed their immense grief over the loss of bandmate Adam “MCA” Yauch
in online statements days after the musician and filmmaker’s death on
May 4, but the surviving members of the group have shared more specific
memories of living and working with their friend of three decades in the
new issue of Rolling Stone.
Asked to explain where Yauch, who died at age 47 after a three-year
fight with salivary gland cancer, fit into their creative process, both
men say MCA was the force that challenged them to experiment and see
things from different perspectives.
“Like the cover of Paul’s Boutique: ‘A 360-degree photo? You
can’t have a camera spin around.’ He researched it and found one. It was
an innate thing for him,” Diamond said, explaining how Yauch’s dabbling
with LSD helped formulate that key record’s aesthetic. “We were
layering a lot of samples on top of each other, and Yauch was definitely
pushing that. The acid experience gave him the ability to see, ‘Wow,
this is great — press ‘play’ on everything at the same time.’ ” Yauch’s
willingness to record fearlessly dated back to the group’s first record,
too, and Diamond explained how “Paul Revere” was born when MCA played
an 808 beat backwards. “Yauch saw this thing we couldn’t see — and he
killed it.”
