Paul McCartney: Why I really sued The Beatles
Paul McCartney is speaking out about The Beatles’ infamous break-up in 1970 – including why he decided to sue the band.
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Paul McCartney is clearing up some “misconceptions” about The Beatles’ infamous break-up in 1970, including why he decided to sue the band.
“I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other,” McCartney, 78, told British GQ in a new interview.
“What I realise 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.”
At the time, the other three members – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – all wanted to make Allan Klein their manager, which McCartney disapproved of, calling Klein “a f***ing idiot.”
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“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,” he explained.
“If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. 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 was told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it. ‘You’ve got to sue The Beatles’.”
McCartney said it was horrible having to make the decision he made but “there was no way I was going to work that hard for all my life and see it all vanish in a puff of smoke. I also knew that, if I managed to save it, I would be saving it for them (the rest of The Beatles) too.”
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Despite Lennon, Harrison and Starr eventually turning on Klein, McCartney said there was a time amid headlines that he was the reason for the band’s demise, that he almost blamed himself too.
“I knew that that was stupid and when we eventually got back together I knew it was silly, but I think it spawned a lot of people who thought that of me,” he continued.
After the band split, McCartney said he turned to alcohol.
“I just took to booze. There wasn’t much time to have mental health issues, it was just, f**k it, it’s boozing or sleeping,” he said, adding that he was inspired by his first wife Linda to get himself out of his depression by telling himself, “OK, this is really bad and I’ve got to do something about it.”
He added, “I think that’s how I got out of it, by persuading myself that it wasn’t a good idea to give in to my depression and my doubts.”
This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Paul McCartney: Why I really sued The Beatles