Paul McCartney documentary showcases Beatles lawsuit and John Lennon feud

Paul McCartney revisited one of the most controversial chapters in Beatles history in “Man on the Run.”

McCartney defended his decision to sue the Beatles and revealed the “f— you, John” moment that followed in the documentary chronicling the end of an era and the start of the singer’s journey with Wings. But before creating Wings, McCartney had to deal with the aftermath of the Beatles’ breakup. The band’s original manager, Brian Epstein, had died and arguments over who to hire had reached a fever pitch.

McCartney refused to entertain the idea of ​​hiring Allen Klein, supported by John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, as his new manager.

“I saw clearly. The way things were going, Allen Klein was going to swallow up the entire Beatles fortune,” McCartney said in the Prime Video documentary, available February 27. “I thought I had to fight.”

Paul McCartney has responded to John Lennon’s dissident comments in his new documentary, “Man on the Run.” (Getty Images)

“My brother-in-law, him and his dad were a big help. They told me to sue them, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein, but I can’t sue the Beatles,'” he added. “‘They’re my friends. They’re going to hate me for this, the public is going to hate me for this, I’m going to hate myself for this.’ But otherwise, I would never get through it. »

McCartney sued the other Beatles in 1970 because he felt financially stuck in a partnership run by manager Allen Klein. At the time, McCartney believed Klein was mismanaging the group’s multimedia company, Apple Corps. The lawsuit wasn’t really about disbanding the group musically — that had already happened — but about legally dissolving the company before things got worse.

Lennon then wrote a song denouncing McCartney’s departure from the legendary group, called “How Do You Sleep?”

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Paul McCartney took heat for breaking up the Beatles, but claimed that John Lennon actually broke up the group. (Getty Images)

The lyrics read, “The only thing you did was ‘Yesterday’/And since you’ve been gone, you’re just another day,” and “The sound you make is muzak to my ears.”

“The only thing you did was ‘Yesterday,’ which was apparently Allen Klein’s suggestion,” McCartney claimed in the documentary. “But deep down I was thinking, ‘If all I did was ‘Yesterday,’ ‘Let It Be,’ ‘Long and Winding Road,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ ‘Lady Madonna’… F— you, John.”

“How do I sleep at night? Actually, pretty good,” he said.

In 1973, Lennon, Harrison and Starr had also sued Klein for financial misconduct. They ended up breaking ties with him.

“John broke up the Beatles,” McCartney insisted in his documentary. “But I’ve been criticized. And that’s a bit of a weight to bear.”

Paul McCartney formed Wings with his wife, Linda McCartney, drummer Geoff Britton, guitarist Denny Laine and guitarist Jimmy McCulloch after the Beatles broke up. (Michael Putland/Getty Images)

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McCartney and Lennon met as teenagers at a religious festival in Liverpool, England. Lennon was already in his own band, The Quarrymen, at the time. After meeting McCartney at the event, Lennon asked him to be part of the band. About three years later, the Beatles were formed.

During a screening of “Man on the Run,” McCartney spoke about his close relationship with Lennon. From the misdeeds of adolescence to the pressures of Beatlemania, the musician explained that his complicated friendship with Lennon persisted through it all.

George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr together as The Beatles. (Getty Images)

“As the film shows, I knew John from a very young age. We were just a few rock and roll fans,” he said, according to The Sun. “We liked hanging out together and we started writing little songs at my house. My dad had a pipe in his drawer. So we thought we’d smoke it. We couldn’t find any tobacco, so we smoked tea! We had all these memories in common.”

“Then we went through the whole Beatles trajectory. But John was always that guy to me, even when he was really mean, and I had to accept that. At the same time, it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s just John, he does that’. He had always done that – so that made it a little easier.”

“But I loved him, you know. I loved all the Beatles guys,” McCartney added. “I try to think about what could have happened differently, but with just me, John, George and Ringo, it was a magical group. And we did well!”

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