Paul on Yoko Ono: She Didn't Break Up the Beatles But She Inspired 'Imagine'
Fifty years after their breakup, Paul McCartney has made a statement that it was not Yoko Ono who broke up the Beatles.
"I'd like to retire soon, and the way things are going I might be able to," Paul McCartney said in an interview, before the band split.
In 1970 McCartney would officially announce the split, while announcing his own solo album. When asked about the reason for the group's split, McCartney said, "Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
However, many fans believed that it was John Lennon's new, artistic obsession with Yoko Ono that drove the band apart. Lennon allegedly allowed Ono in during studio recording sessions, which was against the rules that members had previously set, and insisted on having her artistic input. This led to additional disagreements between the band members, each of whom were looking to go in their own artistic direction.
But in a more recent interview McCartney suggested that had it not been for Yoko Ono, Lennon's later hits which included "Imagine," would not have been possible.
"I don't think he would have done that without Yoko, so I don't think you can blame her for anything," McCartney said in a television interview with David Frost. "When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him. So it was time for John to leave, he was definitely going to leave [one way or another]."
Despite her input, Yoko Ono was not to blame for the split.
"She certainly didn't break the group up, the group was breaking up," McCartney said, adding that they had left a "a neat body of work" so the split "wasn't that bad a thing."
