Paul McCartney Once Had to Stop John Lennon From Drilling Holes in His Head
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were close friends who did plenty of adventurous things together. McCartney was the more cautious of the two, while Lennon has been open about experimenting with psychedelics and other trippy experiences. At one time in their friendship, Lennon wanted to have small holes drilled in his head, but McCartney talked him out of it.
John Lennon wanted to try trepanning
Lennon was very open to trying new experiences that delivered psychedelic sensations. In an interview with GQ, Paul McCartney said John Lennon wanted to try trepanning, which is the act of drilling a hole through the skull to the brain. While it’s typically a medical procedure, people have shown interest in voluntary trepanation to increase mental power and well-being.
According to McCartney, Lennon told him about this process, but McCartney wasn’t interested in participating.
“John was a kooky cat,” McCartney said. “We’d all read about it—you know, this is the ’60s. The ‘ancient art of trepanning,’ which lent a little bit of validity to it, because ancient must be good. And all you’d have to do is just bore a little hole in your skull and it lets the pressure off—well, that sounds very sensible. ‘But look, John, you try it and let me know how it goes.'”
Paul McCartney stopped John Lennon from drilling holes in his head
While trepanning can be a safe procedure, there are risks involved. McCartney was hesitant about this idea and said no, which deterred Lennon from doing it.
“Yeah, but this is the good thing about John and I—I’d say no. And he knew me well enough that if I said no, I meant no, and I’m not frightened of being uncool to say no,” McCartney told GQ. “And I wouldn’t go so far as to say, ‘You’re f*****g crazy,’ because I didn’t need to say that. But, no, I’m not gonna trepan, thank you very much. It’s just not something I would like to do.”
To this day, McCartney still isn’t sure if Lennon was serious about trepanning or not. McCartney believes he was joking, but it was hard to know with Lennon as he suggested doing many bizarre things.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think he was really serious,” McCartney said. “He did say it, but he said all sorts of s***.”
McCartney wonders what his relationship would be like if Lennon were alive today
After The Beatles split, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had a rocky relationship. However, the two were able to reconcile before Lennon’s death in 1980. McCartney told GQ he sometimes wonders what his relationship with Lennon would be like today, and he would love to tell him what a fan he was of his.
“Sometimes, yeah. I was very lucky because before he died we had a good relationship, so I think it would have just got better and better as we matured,” McCartney shared. “I probably would have been able to tell him what a fan of his I was now. These days, I can tell everyone else, and I think I would have been able to tell him now. Whereas I implied it when we were together, I never said, ‘Oh, you’re f*****g great, man, I’m such a fan of yours.’ We just hinted at it with each other. We were Liverpool guys, and you don’t do that—you don’t compliment each other. It’s just how you’re brought up.”
