Paul McCartney Said Some of the ‘Crap’ John Lennon Said Was ‘Utter Foolishness’

Paul McCartney and John Lennon were on decidedly bad terms after The Beatles broke up. They fought viciously over the phone, wrote barbed lyrics about one another, and railed against each other in interviews. Their disagreements often had to do with the band’s business dealings. While Lennon supported their manager, Allen Klein, McCartney was very suspicious of him. He believed that much of what Lennon said about Klein was foolish.

Paul McCartney said John Lennon said some foolish things

When Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr campaigned for Klein to take over as The Beatles’ manager, McCartney pushed against them. After the band broke up, McCartney sued them to wrest control over their catalog from Klein. By 1973, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr fired Klein, who had been working as the manager of their solo careers. McCartney said he felt vindicated.

“Now the only good thing I feel is that I wasn’t wrong. I would have felt really bad if I was wrong and the guy was really a goodie all along and I’d gone and stuck my big nose in there like the pot calling the kettle black,” he told Rolling Stone. “But it turns out he is the type of man who wants to own it for himself and not the type of man who believes the artist should have it and do what he wants with it, which is what I believe.”

Before The Beatles hired Klein, other artists, including Mick Jagger, warned them that he wasn’t a good manager. Lennon said Klein couldn’t possibly be as bad as he seemed. McCartney thought this was foolish.

“[H]e’s nothing more than a trained New York crook,” McCartney said. “John said, ‘Anyone whose record is as bad as this can’t be so bad,’ But that was Lennon-esque crap, which John occasionally did; utter foolishness. Klein had already been convicted on ten counts of income tax.”

Paul McCartney believed John Lennon didn’t mean everything he said

While McCartney rolled his eyes at some of what Lennon said, he believed that his former bandmate sometimes made comments he didn’t mean. It helped to believe this when Lennon was slamming him in the press.

“I know John and I know that most of it was just something to tell the newspapers,” McCartney said. “He was in that mood then and he wanted all that to be said. I think, now, whilst he probably doesn’t regret it, he didn’t mean every single syllable of it. I mean, he came out with all stuff like I’m like Engelbert Humperdinck. I know he doesn’t really think that.”

Most of their conversations were acrimonious after The Beatles broke up

Lennon and McCartney spoke about business affairs after The Beatles broke up. These discussions often devolved into shouting matches.

“I would ring him when I went to New York and he would say, ‘Yeah, what d’you want?’ ‘I just thought we might meet?’ ‘Yeah, what the f*** d’you want, man?’ I used actually to have some very frightening phone calls,” McCartney said, per the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “Thank God they’re not in my life anymore. I went through a period when I would be so nervous to ring him and so insecure in myself that I actually felt like I was in the wrong. It was all very acrimonious and bitter.”

As the 1970s wore on, however, they reestablished a more friendly relationship.