Paul McCartney admits he's "very glad" he reconciled with John Lennon before his tragic death

23 October 2023, 14:30

There may very well have been a point of no return between Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

When The Beatles finally called it a day in 1970, tensions were at an all-time high between each of the iconic bandmates.

Marred by squabbling, creative differences, and a loss of passion for the band's future meant there was only one way it was going to go.

During the recording of their final album Let It Be - offered a new perspective in Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary Get Back - Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr still showed frequent flashes of their collective genius.

However, the cracks were very much appearing, and grew more irreparable by the day, with Yoko Ono joining every session, George growing frustrated with his songwriting contributions being consistently ignored, Ringo evidently disinterested in the band politics, leaving Paul to drag them all through the recording process.

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Even after they eventually broke up, Lennon and McCartney's relationship continued to worsen, with financial and legal battles involving their back catalogue intensifying the hostility.

John called Paul's first solo album "rubbish", which escalated the animosity, with Paul writing 'Too Many People' in response, which John clapped back to in 'How Do You Sleep?'

Despite the notoriously sour relationship between the two, they did manage to reconcile at least.

In a new podcast interview, Paul has expressed relief at the fact he could call John a friend again before his tragic murder, saying: "It was something I was very glad of".

Macca confirmed that he and John were on good terms on again, sometime before Mark David Chapman shot Lennon dead outside his New York City apartment in 1980.

Talking on his new podcast series, McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, the music legend said: "In the end, it was something I was very glad of, when he got murdered, that I’d had some really good times with him before that happened."

"It would have been the worst thing in the world had he just been killed, and we still had a bad relationship."

"That would have been a big guilt trip for me. Luckily, we were friendly, we talked about how to bake bread," McCartney continued.

He then touched on the hostility between the two former bandmates, friends, and collaborators.

"You've got to remember, I sued him in court, I sued his friends from Liverpool, life-long friends, in court," he admitted. "There’s a lot of getting over that has to be done".

Welcome to McCartney: A Life in Lyrics with Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon

After several years of bitter back-and-forth, Lennon and McCartney first began to heal their relationship in 1974.

Lennon temporarily broke up with Yoko Ono and relocated from New York to Los Angeles, which is more commonly referred to as his "lost weekend".

Whilst working with Harry Nilsson in the studio, Paul and Linda McCartney dropped by which resulted in a jam session between the two.

It wasn't particularly fruitful, and the session would mark the final time that the former band mate would write or record with one another.

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Their friendship remained, however, and they even very nearly got The Beatles back together for an impromptu performance for the US comedy series Saturday Night Live that failed to materialise.

Arguably the most successful and impactful songwriting partnership of the 20th century, Lennon and McCartney will always be inextricably tied to one another.

Paul confessed in an earlier episode of his new podcast series that John still continues to inspire him and influence his music from beyond the grave.

"Often, I'll sort of refer… 'What would John think of this?'", he revealed. "He'd have thought it was too soppy. So I'll change it."