Sir Paul McCartney Reveals Why The Beatles Really Split

It’s been over 50 years since The Beatles split, and Sir Paul McCartney has revealed the truth of what really happened with the band in 1970. It’s long been cited as Paul’s departure that broke up the fab four, however in a recent BBC interview he has explained that this was not the case.

The interview

Speaking frankly to John Wilson in an interview, McCartney explained that it was not in fact his decision to walk away from the biggest band in the world but John Lennon’s, saying:

“I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny. I am not the person who instigated the split. Oh no, no, no. John walked into a room one day and said ‘I am leaving The Beatles’. And he said, ‘It’s quite thrilling, it’s rather like a divorce.’ And then we were left to pick up the pieces.

The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko and he wanted… to lie in bed for a week in Amsterdam for peace. You couldn’t argue with that. It was the most difficult period of my life. This was my band, this was my job, this was my life. I wanted it to continue. I thought we were doing some pretty good stuff – Abbey Road, Let It Be, not bad – and I thought we could continue.”

Additionally, McCartney has given insight into the situation at the time because the band had signed to a new manager at that point who McCartney did not like – Allen Klein. Paul wanted to “keep their music out of Klein’s hands” and so a legal battle ensued with McCartney suing the remaining Beatles in the high court in order to dissolve their contract.

Reflecting on this challenging time, Sir Paul accepts that it certainly looked bad and that it would appear to those on the outside that this decision was him splitting the band, but that with hindsight the other members of the group actually thanked him for what he did years later. It’s also thought that without taking the legal action that he did at the time, it would have been impossible to create the 21^st Century Anthology series from the archive footage, nor would the upcoming Get Back documentary by Peter Jackson have been made.

More to be revealed

The full interview with John Wilson will be published as part of This Cultural Life on BBC Radio 4 on 23^rdOctober and will also include McCartney talking about a radio script called Pilchard that he and John wrote together, as well as a newly discovered lyric that was written by Lennon and McCartney but was never recorded. The song titled Tell Me Who He Is has been forgotten for 60 years, with Sir Paul describing his reaction:

“It was amazing to find this. It is my handwriting, but I don’t know how it goes. It would have been a love ballad, rock thing. I would have probably had a tune to it. But you could not put things down. You didn’t have any recording devices so you had to remember them.”

If you’re still craving more from Macca, then you’re in luck and can set a reminder to listen out for a reading from the musician’s new book, The Lyrics, which will be available on BBC Sounds from Monday 25^th October.

You can check out the trailer of The Lyrics and listen to Paul talking about the inspiration for the song Rocky Racoon in the picturesque setting of the British Library.

Keep up to date with Sir Paul’s busy schedule at PaulMcCartney.com

Also by Michelle Sciarrotta: