Paul McCartney accuses John Lennon of breaking up the Beatles

He’s not going to let him.

Paul McCartney insists it was his teammate and songwriting partner John Lennon who decided the Beatles couldn’t ‘fix the problem’ in 1970 – and not him, as has been widely reported for five. decades.

“I did not start the split. He was our Johnny, ”McCartney reportedly told BBC Radio 4 in an interview due to air on October 24, when asked about his April 1970 comments heralding the end of the band’s long and winding road.

“I am not the person who caused the split. Oh no, no, no, “he said, according to an interview preview published in The Guardian.” John walked into a room one day and said, ‘I’m leaving The Beatles.’ whether he was the instigator of the split or not? “

McCartney said the band’s new manager Allen Klein advised them to keep quiet about the split as he negotiated deals on their behalf, but the 79-year-old bassist got impatient and spilled the beans – making him the face of separation from the group. .

“I was tired of hiding it,” McCartney told the BBC, according to the report.

McCartney said that Lennon’s new passions with his wife Yoko Ono – such as the 1969 “bed-ins for peace” in Montreal and Amsterdam – were incompatible with the band continuing to write and record together. .

Lennon, said McCartney, “wanted to go in a bag and stay in bed for a week in Amsterdam for peace. And you couldn’t dispute that.

“The point was, John was making a new life with Yoko,” he explained. “John had always wanted to break away from society because, you know, he was brought up by his aunt Mimi, who was pretty repressive, so he was always looking to break away.”

He added that Lennon casually called the decision to leave “very exciting” and “more like a divorce.” At the same time, McCartney called John and Yoko a “great couple”.

“It was my band, it was my job, it was my life, so I wanted to keep this going,” McCartney said of his desire at the time to keep the band together. “I did not start the split. It was our Johnny who came over one day and said “I’m leaving the band”.

The BBC interview will air about a month before the premiere of director Peter Jackson’s upcoming documentary on the band’s final days, titled “Get Back”.