John Lennon instigated Beatles' split, says Paul McCartney

It's been more than 50 years since the popular band The Beatles split. However, in a candid interview, Paul McCartney has spilled the beans behind the reason the famous band broke up at its prime. In a chat with BBC, McCartney responded to the decision to go solo. 

“Stop right there," he said. "I am not the person who instigated the split. 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 told interviewer John Wilson that Lennon described his decision to leave as “quite thrilling” and “rather like a divorce”. The other members, he adds, were “left to pick up the pieces”. 

“So for a few months we had to pretend,” McCartney went on. “It was weird because we all knew it was the end of the Beatles but we couldn’t just walk away.” Eventually, McCartney became unhappy with the secrets and “let the cat out of the bag” because “I was fed up of hiding it”.

Remembering the unpleasant atmosphere at the time and the “dodgy” influence of the group's then-new manager, Allen Klein, McCartney said, “Around about that time we were having little meetings and it was horrible. It was the opposite of what we were. We were musicians not meeting people." The split became inevitable, he believes, because John “wanted to go in a bag and lie in bed for a week in Amsterdam for peace. And you couldn’t argue with that.” Yet he does not hold Yoko responsible, he added, “They were a great couple. There was huge strength there.”

It later became a legal battle. The lawyers were brought in to protect the Beatles' legacy. “I had to fight and the only way I could fight was in suing the other Beatles because they were going with Klein," he said, adding, "And they thanked me for it years later. But I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny coming in one day and saying ‘I’m leaving the group’.”

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