Sir Paul McCartney would have “struggled with heartache” if he’d failed to make peace with John Lennon before he was shot dead.
Marking Lennon’s 80th birthday, former Beatle Sir Paul said he was “so happy” to have reconnected with him.
Sir Paul was speaking with Lennon’s son Sean for a BBC special event.
Sir Paul explained:
“I always say to people, one of the great things for me was that after all The Beatles rubbish and all the arguing and the business, you know, business differences really… that even after all of that, I’m so happy that I got it back together with your dad.
“It really, really would have been a heartache to me if we hadn’t had reunited.
“It was so lovely too that we did, and it really gives me sort of strength to know that.”
The Beatles had an acrimonious break-up in 1970 with John and Paul blaming each other for the band’s end.
Lennon stated that he would not work again with his former best friend.
However, they settled their differences before Lennon was shot dead by Mark Chapman in 1980.
Talking about how the prolific song-writers – Lennon and McCartney – worked, Paul said:
“I think what was important wasn’t who was more sophisticated than the other or whatever.
“And there maybe is some truth that, musically, I had an edge because my dad had shown us some things.
“I’d learned the guitar chords a bit before John, but it wasn’t so much that, the sophistication, it was attitudes.
“So, my attitude would be, ‘this is what I want to do’.
“And then John would bring another edge to it.
“The great thing was the combination of those two attitudes, and I look back on it now like a fan.”
“It was a bit ying-yang.
“They say with marriages opposites attract and I think we weren’t like madly opposite, but I had some stuff he didn’t have, and he had some stuff I didn’t have.
“When you put them together it made something extra.”
