In a new interview, the singer returns to the separation of the group that occurred 50 years ago. And assures that he would have preferred to be able to avoid it.
Paul McCartney didn’t want The Beatles to go their separate ways. This is what the musician assures in an interview soon to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, whose Guardian unveiled an excerpt on Sunday. For an episode of the series The Cultural Life, the singer returns to the end of the group, at the end of the 1960s, which legend has often attributed to him:
“I am not the instigator of the separation,” says Macca. “John came out one day and said, ‘I’m quitting the Beatles. Is that the instigator of the breakup, or not?”
“John was building a new life with Yoko (Ono),” he continues. “John had always wanted to break free from society. He had been brought up by his aunt Mimi, who was quite repressive, so he was always looking to break free.” Without this decision by John Lennon, Paul McCartney believes that the British group could have lasted longer: “It was my group, my job, my life, so I wanted it to continue.”
“We had to pretend”
As the site reminds us iHeartRadio, Paul McCartney is the one who publicly announced the separation of the group he had founded with John Lennon, George Harrison and Richard Starkey said Ringo Starr. But the decision had been taken long before. As he reveals in the upcoming interview, the Beatles had been instructed by their manager Allen Klein not to say anything about the breakup until he finalized contracts:
“For a few months we had to pretend. It was weird, because we all knew it was the end of the Beatles but we couldn’t leave.” He finally decided to “spit it out” because he “was sick of hiding it”.
The Beatles followed solo careers after their split. John Lennon was shot dead on December 8, 1980 at the age of 40 by a jealous fan of his celebrity, Mark David Chapman, outside his home on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. George Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001 at the age of 58.
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