Paul McCartney opened up about the death of his childhood friend and former bandmate John Lennon in a new book about his post-Beatles band, Wings.
McCartney, 83, recalled learning of Lennon’s December 8, 1980, murder “early in the morning” when his manager called him.
“It was just too crazy,” the Grammy winner said in Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, which hit shelves Tuesday, November 4. “We just said what everyone said; it was all blurred. It was the same as the Kennedy [assassination]. The same horrific moment, you know. You couldn’t take it in. I still haven’t taken it in. I don’t want to.”
While the two musicians weren’t always friendly after The Beatles broke up in 1970, McCartney noted that they were in a good place at the time of Lennon’s death. (Lennon died at age 40 after Mark David Chapman shot him outside his home in New York City.)
“That is a nice thing, a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out,” McCartney explained in the book. “But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn’t have any kind of blowup.”
McCartney went on to note that he and Lennon had a “very happy conversation” about their families. “Enjoying his life very much; [Lennon’s son] Sean was a very big part of it,” he continued. “And thinking about getting on with his career.”
Paul’s daughter Stella McCartney, meanwhile, recalled seeing her dad take the call where he learned about Lennon’s death. (Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is an oral history that includes interviews from the McCartney family as well as numerous Wings and Beatles collaborators.)
“I remember the biggest reaction I’d ever seen from a phone call, and him leaving the kitchen and going outside,” the fashion designer, 54, said. “I admit it breaks my heart to this day. That was truly heartbreaking to see. I’ve got that footage in my head for my life. I’ve captured in my head the moment Paul McCartney found out that John Lennon had been murdered.”
Paul explained that he and the other two then-surviving Beatles, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, separately reacted to the news by going into the studio. “Nobody could stay home with that news,” he added. “We all had to go to work and be with people we knew. Couldn’t bear it. We just had to keep going. So, I went in and did a day’s work in a kind of shock.”
Sean Ono Lennon, the only child of John and wife Yoko Ono, noted that his dad had all of his former bandmates’ solo albums in his collection. (John also shared son Julian Lennon with first wife Cynthia Powell.)
“[They were] quite worn, actually; you can tell that they were listened to,” Sean, 50, recalled of the LPs. “He had Beaucoups of Blues, Ringo’s album, which looked quite worn, and he had all the George stuff. And of course he had all the Paul stuff.”
The Beatles officially broke up in April 1970 when Paul said in a press release about his debut solo album, McCartney, that he had no plans to work with the band again in the future. Later that year, he sued his bandmates to dissolve their contractual relationship, but their partnership wasn’t terminated until late 1974.
After the end of The Beatles, all four members went on to pursue solo careers. Paul, for his part, also found success with Wings, which released seven studio albums. While Lennon and Paul in particular sometimes traded barbs in the press and in their music, Lennon praised his ex-bandmate in one of his final interviews before his death.
“One of the great blessings in my life is that we made up,” Paul said in the new book. “We’d loved each other all our lives, and we’d had our arguments and we’d called each other names. But it had never got any more serious than two brothers in a family.”
Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, edited by Ted Widmer, is out now.
