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TL;DR:

  • Paul McCartney was late to The Beatles’ first meeting with Brian Epstein.
  • Paul McCartney was the only Beatle who gave Brian Epstein any problems.
  • Paul McCartney said the band fell apart after Brian Epstein died.
Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Brian Epstein wears tuxedos and stand in a line.
The Beatles and Brian Epstein | Hulton Archive/Getty Images

When Brian Epstein started managing The Beatles, he had no prior experience. He was interested in working with the group, and they hired him because they liked him. Epstein got along well with the band, and they rarely fought. Still, he got along with certain members of the group better than others. He had the most complicated relationship with Paul McCartney.

Paul McCartney nearly ruined The Beatles’ first meeting with Brian Epstein 

After Epstein discovered The Beatles and saw them perform, he set up a meeting with them. John Lennon, George Harrison, and the band’s first drummer, Pete Best, didn’t make a great first impression. Per Express, they had been drinking at a local pub before meeting with Epstein. Even worse, McCartney didn’t arrive with them.

Epstein was reportedly “appalled” by his lateness, especially after he learned that McCartney had just woken up and was in the bath. Luckily, Harrison salvaged the meeting with a joke.

“He may be very late, but he’ll be very clean,” he reportedly said. 

McCartney eventually arrived, and Epstein used his lateness as a reason why they should hire him.

“It seems to me that with everything going on, someone ought to be looking after you,” he told them. 

Paul McCartney had the most complicated relationship with Brian Epstein

Epstein got along well with the band, and they rarely fought, with the exception of a minor argument with McCartney. He had the most complicated relationship with the bassist, which he readily acknowledged.

“I think Paul thinks I’m closer to John than I am with him,” Epstein said, per the book The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “It’s not really true. It was earlier on, but now I love them all equally.”

McCartney was also the only member of the band who questioned him, which added tension to their relationship.

“Paul was the only one who ever gave him any little worries when he rang up to complain about something, or ask things,” Epstein’s assistant, Joanne, said. “The others might ask exactly the same, but he always worried more about pleasing Paul. He could be upset by talking to Paul on the phone, but never by any of the others.”

He said the band had a difficult time after their manager’s death

In 1967, Epstein died of an accidental overdose. McCartney noted that his death negatively impacted the band. 

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“It’s discipline we lack,” he said in The Beatles: Get Back. “We’ve never had discipline. We had a sort of slight, symbolic discipline. Like Mr. Espstein. You know, he sort of said, ‘Get suits on,’ and we did, you know. And so we were always fighting that discipline a bit. There really is no one there now to say, ‘Do it.’ Where is, there always used to be. Daddy’s gone away now, and we’re on our own at the holiday camp. I think we either go home or we do it. I think we’ve got a bit shy, you know?”

Less than three years later, The Beatles broke up.

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