Paul McCartney Says John Lennon Broke Up The Beatles

Paul McCartney has revealed that it was his bandmate John Lennon who broke up The Beatles.

For a long time, many had assumed that it was McCartney that brought an end to the iconic British band. But, speaking in an interview with the BBC, McCartney stated that it was in fact Lennon who called for the split.

“I didn’t instigate the split. That was Johnny,” said McCartney. “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.”

McCartney admitted that the band “could have” gone on if Lennon hadn’t walked away.

“The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko,” McCartney explained. “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,” he admitted. “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.”

The 79-year-old added that he then sued his bandmates in order to dissolve their contractual relationship and keep their music out of their manager Allen Klein’s hands.

“And they thanked me for it years later. But I didn’t instigate the split,” he said.

The full interview with Paul McCartney will be available on BBC Radio 4 on October 23.

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