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Paul McCartney has reflected on his post-Beatles rivalry with John Lennon, musing on why his former bandmate might have been against his follow-up project, Wings.
In a new interview, conducted by film director Judd Apatow in Los Angeles on Monday (28 September), McCartney was asked why that period annoyed Lennon, with Apatow querying: “Was it a joyfulness to it while he’s doing primal scream and you’re having fun? What do you think got under his skin about it?”
According to Variety, McCartney replied: “Well, I don’t know. I think maybe he expected more from me. He expected something different from me, and I wasn’t doing that. I was just doing ‘madcap’.”
The musician added: “I always thought John was very cool, and I still do. But he could be a complete idiot, over some things.”
McCartney co-founded Wings alongside then-wife Linda McCartney and Denny Laine in 1971, just one a year after The Beatles’ final album Let It Be. Denny Seiwell and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine comprised the band that went on to release seven albums, including Band on the Run (1973) and London Town (1978).
In a 1971 interview, Lennon claimed he could not see himself working with McCartney ever again. Following the release of McCartney’s album Ram in May that same year, the singer admitted that many of the lyrics in the song “Too Many People” were intended as digs at Lennon.
The musician added that he “wasn’t privy” to why Lennon was against Wings initially, but liked that his former bandmate became more complimentary of him midway through the 1970s.
In a 1975 Rolling Stone interview, Lennon praised Wings’ 1973 album Band on the Run, and stated: “Wings keeps changing all the time. It’s conceptual. I mean, they’re backup men for Paul. It doesn’t matter who’s playing. You can call them Wings, but it’s Paul McCartney music. And it’s good stuff.”
McCartney insisted that he “loved John and loves him to this day and always will”, adding: “It wouldn’t matter, as it didn’t matter, what he said or did, because I’d known him since I was 15, and so he was like this mad guy I knew, and I really looked up to him.”
The singer-songwriter reconnected with Lennon in 1980, shortly before his assassination, and said in 2020 it would have “been a heartache” had they not done so.
Speaking to Sean Lennon – John and Yoko Ono’s son – he said: “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 – even after all of that, I’m so happy I got it back together with your dad.”
He continued: “It really, really would have been a heartache to me if we hadn’t reunited. It was so lovely too that we did and it really gives me strength to know that.”
