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It’s not a stretch to say Paul McCartney and The Beatles changed nearly everything about popular music during their run. They went from writing pop-centric love songs to heady, experimental tunes quickly. It’s safe to say that what the Fab Four consumed behind the scenes helped them change their sound and open new doors for musicians who followed. Yet Paul once revealed why it was scary when The Beatles mixed their extracurriculars with their recording sessions and got high at Abbey Road Studios.

The Beatles -- George Harrison (from left), Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney -- light up cigarettes backstage before a November 26, 1963 concert.
(l-r) George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney | Staff/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Paul McCartney and The Beatles first got high with Bob Dylan

The short version of the story is Bob Dylan first got The Beatles high when he met them in the United States. Ringo Starr set the record straight and provided a slightly longer version of the events. 

Dylan didn’t force the Fab Four to smoke. He was in the band’s hotel room when someone delivered the pot. He started smoking, and the band nominated Ringo to join in. Soon after that, drugs became a regular part of The Beatles’ lives. We could also include the uppers German club owners fed the band during their Hamburg residencies years earlier, but smoking pot was a game-changer for the group.

As Paul once revealed, hiding their smoking habits from producer George Martin while recording at Abbey Road Studios wasn’t easy. It also happened to be a bit scary.

Paul revealed that it was a little scary for The Beatles to get high at Abbey Road Studios

The Beatles made marijuana part of their routine later in their career. Their pot-smoking made shooting Help a nightmare during the early 1965 filming dates. Smoking in the studio wasn’t any better.

The Fab Four wanted to hide their pot-smoking habit from Martin. To do that, they would duck into an empty room at Abbey Road Studios for a quick toke. As Paul explained to GQ, the room was empty for a reason:

“There was a room round the back through those doors, which was an echo chamber. Can you imagine us all sitting, a bloody great echo coming? Of course, when you’re a little bit stoned, it’s scary.

“For us, it was just a quiet place where no one would go.”

Paul and his bandmates thought they found a quiet, empty room at Abbey Road that suited their needs. It was quiet until someone recording in one of the studios needed echo on a track. Then, the producers would flow the audio into the empty (except for the smoking Beatles) room and record the echo. So the Fab Four learned to get high in silence while having their good times interrupted by booming vocals coming through the speakers.

Yep, that sounds a bit scary to us.

Macca later owned some of Abbey Road’s history

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Paul McCartney Wrote a Classic Beatles Song While Skipping School in Liverpool

Getting high in the echo chamber at Abbey Road might have been scary for The Beatles, but it didn’t keep them away. They recorded much of their finest music there and named their final album as a group after the studio.

Macca recorded some of his solo and Wings records there. And Paul helped save history at Abbey Road Studios. When the studio faced tough financial times in the later 1970s, he took some of the instruments and recording equipment home so the accountants didn’t sell them.

Paul McCartney said it was scary getting high at Abbey Road, but it clearly didn’t dissuade him or The Beatles from making it like a second home.

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