More than 50 years after being suggested as the man responsible, the 'Band on the Run' singer stresses that he and bandmates Ringo Starr and George Harrison all wanted to continue.
- Oct 11, 2021
AceShowbiz - Paul McCartney has set the record straight on The Beatles' 1970 split - insisting John Lennon initiated the break up.
When the Fab Four went their separate ways, newspaper headlines like "Paul Quits the Beatles" suggested McCartney was the man responsible.
Now, more than 50 years later, Paul tells BBC Radio 4 interview series "This Cultural Life" he and fellow band members Ringo Starr and George Harrison all wanted the chart-topping group to continue.
Asked about his decision to go solo, McCartney replies, "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?"
"This was my band, this was my job, this was my life, so I wanted it to continue," he says in the interview, according to The Guardian.
Fans also previously blamed Lennon's widow Yoko Ono for causing a rift and the "Band on the Run" singer admits John and Yoko's romance played a part in The Beatles' dissolution.
"The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko," he shares, although he doesn't hold Ono responsible either, telling BBC reporter John Wilson, "They were a great couple. There was huge strength there."
He adds, "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."
After the band agreed to go their separate ways, then-manager Allen Klein "told them to keep quiet about it so he could conclude some business deals," which McCartney believes is the reason for confusion over who instigated the historic split.
"So for a few months we had to pretend," McCartney explains to Wilson. "It was weird because we all knew it was the end of the Beatles but we couldn't just walk away."
Eventually, the "Another Day" songwriter "let the cat out of the bag" because "I was fed up of hiding it." He notes the breakup felt "rather like a divorce" and that he, Ringo and George, were "left to pick up the pieces."
The music legend's hour-long interview will be broadcast on October 23.
