Paul O’Grady stepped in to re-record a spoken word section for Miles Kane’s new album, after the BBC wanted “stupid money” for the original recording.
Kane, 35, hoped to start his song Don’t Let It Get You Down with a recording of the comedian’s drag queen alter ego, Lily Savage, praising one of her own routines as having “clear diction, beautifully spoken, topical”.
However, when the indie rocker tried to use the audio clip on his new album Change The Show, the BBC required a payment.
After the pair spoke on the phone, O’Grady offered to re-record the clip for him, jokingly describing the BBC as “tight bastards”.
Kane told the PA news agency: “It’s only a 10-second line. It’s a couple of sentences but it’s like it’s describing my record.
“So we took it, we sampled it and we stuck it at the beginning of this tune, Don’t Let It Get You Down.
“Time goes on and then management were like, ‘That’s obviously a bit of a joke, isn’t it? We are getting rid of that and we are mastering it out.’ And I was like: ‘Are you kidding me? This is more important to me than the song itself now.’
“To get the licencing off the BBC they wanted stupid money for it, so we contacted him and it turned out he’s a big fan of mine. He’s got all my records.
“So me and him spoke on the phone and he had me in stitches. And he’s like, ‘I’ll just re-record it for you’. He’s like, ‘The BBC, the tight bastards’.”
Kane, who is one-half of The Last Shadow Puppets alongside Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, said he and O’Grady shared a mutual affection because they were both raised in the Wirral Peninsula.
He added: “I was so touched and we’re from the same place. He’s from the Wirral as well so there’s an understanding. It’s quite a nice thing to feel.”
The BBC declined to comment further.
Change The Show by Miles Kane is out now.