Paul McCartney Shared How His 1st Wife Linda Freed Him of a ‘Bulls***’ Beatles Habit
Paul McCartney met his first wife, Linda Eastman, in 1967. He was still with The Beatles and would be for another few years, but his time with the band was wearing on him. McCartney frequently felt tired and disillusioned. He shared how a brief comment from Linda changed his life perspective and helped shake him out of a behavior he’d developed because of the band.
Paul McCartney said his first wife Linda made a comment that changed his life
When McCartney met Linda, he was at the height of his career and constantly working. As a result, he was often exhausted when they met up. When he apologized to her for his fatigue, she made a simple remark that stunned him.
“I remember very early on apologising because I was so tired, I said, ‘I’m really tired, I’m sorry.’ She said, ‘It’s allowed,'” McCartney said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “I remember thinking, F***ing hell! That was a mind-blower. I’d never been with anyone who’d thought like that: ‘It’s allowed.’ And it was quite patently clear that it was allowed to be tired.”
McCartney’s schedule with The Beatles kept him constantly working, and he felt that he could never show his exhaustion.
“I think I’d trained myself never to appear tired. Always to be on the ball. ‘Sorry I’m yawning. I’m sorry,’ which is complete bulls***,” he said. “It’s a Beatles thing, you had to be there, you had to be on time.”
Linda McCartney brought many changes into Paul McCartney’s life
McCartney’s relationship with Linda was so welcome because she helped him feel like a normal person. She pushed him to relax and reject what he’d learned after years of overwhelming fame.
“When we first met, it would be late at night after a session or something and I would be trying to unwind and so we would go for a drive around London in the late-night clear streets, two in the morning or something, and she’d say, ‘Try and get lost,'” he explained. “And I’d say, ‘That goes against every fibre in my body. As a driver, the one thing you never try and do is get lost!’ She said, ‘Try it.’ And I’d try it; ‘For you I’ll try it.'”
While they never managed to get lost on the familiar London streets, McCartney said this activity helped him feel freer than he had in years.
“So I’d turn off little streets round Battersea and down little back streets — ‘Hey, this is great’ — but pretty soon you’d see a big sign, ‘West End.’ Signs everywhere,” he said. “It’s actually very difficult to get lost round London. We used to end up in the greatest of places that’d never been to before. We never did get lost. So that kind of freedom was part of our thing; still is, actually.”
The couple remained together for years
McCartney married Linda in 1969, and they enjoyed a particularly close relationship. While his work required him to travel frequently, she was always by his side. In their nearly 30 years together, they spent only 10 nights apart when McCartney was arrested in Tokyo.
“I am privileged to have been her lover for thirty years, and in all that time, except for one enforced absence, we never spent a single night apart,” he said. “When people asked why, we would say, ‘What for?'”
The couple remained together until Linda’s death in 1998.
