Today in History: John Lennon Admitted Paul McCartney Was Right in 1 of The Beatles Biggest Fights
In 1970, nearly a year after John Lennon left the band, Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles were no longer collaborating. Not long after, McCartney filed a lawsuit against the band. He wanted to take control of the catalog from their manager, Allen Klein. The rest of his bandmates vehemently opposed him in this, but they eventually realized that he was right. Lennon admitted this on this day in 1973.
The bassist sued The Beatles when they broke up
The Beatles began working with Klein after the death of their longtime manager, Brian Epstein. McCartney had never wanted Klein as their manager, instead pushing for Lee Eastman, his father-in-law. He didn’t trust Klein, so in 1970, he sued the band to regain control.
“The only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple — and to release Get Back by Peter Jackson which allowed us to release Anthology and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records — was to sue the band,” McCartney told GQ. “If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did.”
In the court case, McCartney’s former bandmates expressed their frustration toward him.
“The only other major contenders for the manager’s job were the Eastmans — father of McCartney’s wife Linda, and her brother,” Lennon said, per the book The Beatles Diaries Volume 2: After the Breakup. “I had opposed the idea of having as manager anyone in such a close relationship with any particular Beatle. Paul’s criticism of Mr. Klein was not fair.”
McCartney said that the period was challenging for him because of how furious his former bandmates were.
John Lennon admitted Paul McCartney had been in the right
Three years later, Lennon changed his opinion of Klein. Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison cut ties with him. In an interview with Weekend World on April 6, 1973, Lennon shared why they fired him and gave credit to McCartney.
“There are many reasons why we finally gave him the push, although I don’t want to go into the details of it,” he said. “Let’s say possibly Paul’s suspicions were right … and the time was right.”
Lennon said that by the time they fired him, he had been unhappy with Klein for a while.
“Well, you’re concluding that I thought he was something,” he said. “My position has always been a ‘Devil and the deep-blue sea,’ and at that time I do whatever I feel is right. Although I haven’t been particularly happy personally for quite a long time with the situation, I didn’t want to make any quick moves and I wanted to see if maybe something would work out.”
Paul McCartney said John Lennon caused The Beatles’ break up
Because of the court case and the fact that he announced the split, McCartney has long been blamed for The Beatles’ demise. He said this was not the case. Long before McCartney announced his departure, Lennon quit the band.
“I am not the person who instigated the split,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life (via USA Today). “Oh, no, no, no. John walked into a room one day and said, ‘I am leaving The Beatles.’ Is that instigating the split or not?”
McCartney said when Lennon left the band, he’d still wanted to continue on with them.
“This was my band, this was my job, this was my life,” he said. “So I wanted it to continue.”
