Laurence Juber was born on November 12, 1952, in Stepney, London. As lead guitarist in Paul McCartney’s Wings from 1978 to 1981, he played on the band’s final studio album, Back to the Egg. The flamenco-style acoustic solo on the 1979 single “Goodnight Tonight” also belongs to him, an early introduction to the acoustic playing he would explore throughout his solo career.
His first guitar was itself a birthday present. Juber recalled in an interview with Ryan Guitars that his parents gave him the instrument when he turned 11, during the rise of Beatlemania in Britain. He wanted to become a studio musician, which meant developing the versatility to handle whatever music landed in front of him. He learned to read music, studied classical guitar and pursued a music degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. He later credited that education with giving him tools he could apply to composition and production.
Denny Laine supplied the connection that took him into Wings. The two met on a television session, and Laine recommended Juber to the McCartneys. An invitation to play together followed. Recalling the audition to Guitar World in 2025, Juber said he hadn’t arrived knowing Wings’ repertoire; they played rock ’n’ roll and reggae instead. The session gave McCartney a chance to hear how he worked, and Juber left with an offer to join the band.
It also changed his working day. In a 2017 San Diego Troubadour interview, Juber described moving from tightly scheduled London sessions to recording at McCartney’s farm in Scotland. Where a studio booking might demand several songs in three hours, Wings could devote a day to one tune. That gave him time to develop parts and sounds, with the responsibility of making them work as a member of the group.
On Back to the Egg, released in 1979, that freedom produced very different guitar performances. For “Spin It On,” Juber sat with McCartney in the control room, working toward a solo that matched the song’s punk and rockabilly energy. “To You” took him somewhere stranger. As he explained to Guitar World in 2026, McCartney manipulated an Eventide harmonizer while Juber improvised, changing the pitches he heard in his headphones. Juber responded to those altered notes, taking the solo beyond the chord changes. The producer and guitarist were shaping the performance together as it happened.
His own acoustic writing was developing during those sessions, too. Juber recorded “Maisie” in Scotland with members of Wings, although it didn’t make Back to the Egg. The recording eventually appeared on his 1982 solo EP, Standard Time. “That was really my first fingerstyle piece,” he told Something Else! in 2012. He later revisited the composition, adding to it as his approach developed.
After Wings ended, Juber moved to the United States and resumed session work while making more room for his own music. In a separate 2012 Something Else! interview, he described exploring altered tunings and moving from composing solo guitar pieces into arranging other people’s songs. Fingerstyle playing let him supply the melody, bass and accompaniment himself. His 2000 album LJ Plays The Beatles brought the music that had helped draw him to guitar into that format.
On his 2024 album A Day In My Life, Juber returned to “Blackbird.” Explaining the arrangement to Guitar World in 2025, he identified a practical problem: McCartney’s original guitar part accompanied a voice, while Juber needed the instrument to carry the sung melody as well. Changing the key and tuning gave him room to combine those elements, preserving the tune while finding a different route through its harmony.
