The Beatles are one of the most influential and enduring bands of all time, yet they were only together for eight years. In 1970, the Beatles officially broke up, and the band never got back together. Over the years, John Lennon's wife Yoko Ono has often been blamed for the breakup, as well as Paul McCartney. But, in a new interview, McCartney clarified that Lennon was the one who initially left the band—something Lennon himself also shared when he was alive.
McCartney was interviewed by BBC Radio 4's This Cultural Life ahead of the release of his new book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. The full interview will be released on Oct. 23, but for now, quotes have been shared in which McCartney talks about the breakup of the band. Read on to see what he had to say.
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McCartney refused to claim credit for the Beatles' split.
Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com"I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny," McCartney said in the This Cultural Life interview (via The Guardian). "Stop right there. 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. Is that instigating the split, or not?”
McCartney added of Lennon's reasons for wanting to leave, "The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko. John had always wanted to sort of break loose from society because, you know, he was brought up by his Aunt Mimi, who was quite repressive, so he was always looking to break loose." McCartney also said, Lennon "wanted to go in a bag and lie in bed for a week in Amsterdam for peace. And you couldn’t argue with that." The 79-year-old singer does not blame Ono. “They were a great couple," McCartney said."There was huge strength there.”
Lennon also took responsibility himself.
Michael Putland/Getty ImagesIn response to McCartney's new interview, the official Twitter account for Lennon's estate tweeted a quote from a 1970 interview Lennon did with Rolling Stone in which he admitted that he left the band first. In the interview, Lennon said of how he quit, "I said to Paul, 'I’m leaving.'"
In a piece about the breakup of the band, the Independent reported that Lennon also once said, "I wanted to do it and I should have done it. I started the band, I disbanded it. It’s as simple as that."
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McCartney was the one to announce the news publicly.
Andrew MacLear/Getty ImagesWhile Lennon left the band in 1969, the breakup wasn't made official until 1970 when McCartney announced in a press release that he was no longer making music with the Beatles and that he didn't see it happening again. This was while he was promoting his first solo album, McCartney. As reported by the Independent, McCartney's announcement surprised the other Beatles. At the time, they were all dealing with the business side of breaking up. But, McCartney told This Cultural Life that "he "let the cat out of the bag" because he "was fed up of hiding it.”
McCartney wanted the band to stay together and keep making music.
Jeff Hochberg/Getty ImagesIn this new interview, McCartney said that towards the end of the Beatles they were still making "pretty good stuff." He added, "Abbey Road, Let It Be, not bad." He added, "This was my band, this was my job, this was my life, so I wanted it to continue."
Following the split, all four members—McCartney, Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison—had successful solo careers and released music with bands of their own. Some of the members did collaborate again, but never all four members at once. In 2021, McCartney and Starr are the two surviving Beatles. Lennon was killed in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001.
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