Musician Paul McCartney explained why he sued The Beatles as he tries to clear up “misconceptions” about the band’s breakup in 1970.
McCartney recalled the band’s drama in an interview with British GQ published Tuesday.
Paul is @BritishGQ’s September issue cover star, with photography taken by @maryamccartney. Read the exclusive interview with Paul here! ⬇https://t.co/c0CXeI4kb0 pic.twitter.com/y9OzXVsD9S
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) August 4, 2020
“I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other,” McCartney told the outlet. “What I realise now is that, because it was a family, because it was a gang, families argue. And families have disputes. And some people want to do this and some people want to do that.”
The lawsuit stemmed from John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s decision to hire Allan Klein as the band’s manager. Lennon, Harrison and Starr would later turn on Klein and the band would get back together again. (RELATED: Ringo Starr, Beatles Reunite For New Recording)
“The only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple – and to release ‘Get Back’ by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release ‘Anthology’ and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue the band,” he explained. “If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did.”
paul mccartney on the cover of the september issue of british GQ, 2020 pic.twitter.com/mP1cKRUPD5
— andrey (@drivemycartney) August 4, 2020
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein,’ and I was told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it,” he recalled. “‘You’ve got to sue The Beatles.'”
McCartney said the decision was hard to make, but he didn’t want to see his hard work “vanish.”
“There was no way I was going to work that hard for all my life and see it all vanish in a puff of smoke,” he said. “I also knew that, if I managed to save it, I would be saving it for them [the rest of The Beatles] too.”