John right to quit Fab 4
Macca finally accepts Beatles co-star split band over his deep love for Yoko
SIR Paul McCartney now believes John Lennon was right to break up The Beatles and devote his life to being with Yoko Ono.
The singer was reportedly furious at the time of the split and the pair struggled to patch up their friendship before Lennon was shot dead in 1980.
But in a US interview, Macca, 76, said: “There was a meeting where John came in and said, ‘I’m leaving the group,’ and he was with Yoko… he’d reached that stage in his life. We all had.
“But he found Yoko and John loved strong women, even though we thought she was intrusive. But looking back on it, you think, ‘The guy was totally in love with her. And you have just got to respect that.’ So we did. And I do.”
In the interview with DJ Howard Stern to promote his new album Egypt Station, Macca spoke fondly of his prodigious creative partnership with Lennon. He said: “Looking back on the whole Beatles career, particularly me and John writing, that does amaze me.
“I say to people we wrote just short of 300 songs. “We would meet up to write and every single time we sat down we came away with a song.”
In the past Yoko was thought to have been behind the band’s 1970 split, after 10 years together. When the Beatles began the Sgt Pepper album in May 1968, she sat with Lennon on the studio floor and tensions between her and the
group continued to grow. ■ A classic 60s Mini built specially for Macca has been sold at auction in the US for £182,000.