Paul McCartney is opening up about the biggest misconception about him and it has to do with the breakup of The Beatles.
The 78-year-old singer talked with British GQ for the cover story of the magazine’s September 2020 issue, which is available on newsstands this Friday.
“I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other. What I realize now is that, because it was a family, because it was a gang, families argue. And families have disputes. And some people want to do this and some people want to do that,” Paul said.
Paul then explained the reason why he decided to sue his band when he left the group in 1970.
“So I think what came about after that … the only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple – and to release Get Back by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release Anthology and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue the band. If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein,” Paul said. “The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did. I said ‘Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein,” and I wasn’t told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it. ‘You’ve got to sue the Beatles.’”
Paul also talked about issues he had with the late John Lennon.
“I remember reading an article, an interview with Yoko, who, OK, she was a big John supporter, I get that, but in this article she goes, ‘Paul did nothing. All he ever did was book studio.’ And I’m going, ‘Err? No…’ And then John does this famous song, ‘How Do You Sleep?’, and he’s going, ‘All you ever did was ‘Yesterday’…’ And I’m going, ‘No, man,’” Paul continued.
He added, “But then you hear the stories from various angles and apparently people who were in the room when John was writing that, he was getting suggestions for the lyrics off Allen Klein. So, you see the atmosphere of ‘Let’s get Paul. Let’s nail him in a song…’ And those things were pretty hurtful.”
Last month, Paul actually wrote a super sweet note for bandmate Ringo Starr on his birthday.
You can read the full interview at GQ-Magazine.co.uk.
