Paul McCartney hasn’t dealt with John Lennon’s death ‘very well’ years after killing: 'It's just so senseless'
Sir Paul McCartney and late John Lennon’s friendship was well-known and the Beatles legend recently confessed that he has not “dealt with'' Lennon's death “very well” even after 40 years of the tragedy. The Beatles co-founder was assassinated on December 8, 1980, in New York by deranged fan Mark Chapman. McCartney appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and when host Seth Doane questioned, “I wonder how all these years later, you're processing it?” The 78-year-old responded: “I'm not sure I am. It's very difficult for me and I, occasionally, will have thoughts and sort of say: ‘I don't know why I don't just break down crying every day?’ because it's that bad!”
Doane further asked, “Do you sometimes?” to which the ‘Live And Let Die’ hitmaker said, “Not every day... Yeh, you know there will be times when I just have memories and just think: ‘Oh my God’ ... well it's just so senseless.” The host also asked McCartney if his friend were alive today, he would still be writing and producing, and the musician replied: “Yeh - he was showing no signs of slowing up, you know? He was still making great music. The question is: Would we have ever got back together again?... I don't know. We don't know. We were friends. That was one of the great things about it. You know, I don't know how I would have dealt with it [John's murder] because I don't think I've dealt with it very well. You know, in a way... I wouldn't be surprised if a psychiatrist would sort of find out that I'm slightly in denial, 'cause it's too much.”
McCartney earlier branded Lennon “the best collaborator in the world” and called his 80th birthday “happy sad”. “I'm working on one at the moment that was going one way but I didn't like the lyric. ‘No, this is not happening, mate.’ This would have been the point where John and I would have said ‘You know what, let's have a cup of tea and try rethink this,’” the ‘Here Comes the Sun’ singer told Uncut magazine. He also added, “Yeah, often. We collaborated for so long, I think, OK, what would he think of this? What would he say now? We'd both agree that this new song I'm talking about is going nowhere. So instead of sitting around we should destroy it and remake it. I started that process yesterday in the studio. I took the vocal off it and decided to write a new vocal.”
McCartney and Lennon had worked together between 1963 and 1970, along with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, during which the band released 11 albums, making The Beatles the best selling band of all time. “Yeah it was [strange]. Because right up until that point I'd been working with John, the best collaborator in the world. Suddenly that was taken away. It was very difficult,” the ‘Hey Jude’ singer concluded.
Apart from talking about music and Lennon, McCartney also discussed the Covid-19. “I don't wanna give it to anyone, I don't wanna get it! When people say ‘I don't wanna wear masks, infringing on my civil liberties’, I say: ‘No, that is stupid!’” The legend added, “Even though it's been probably the most frightening year of our lives … because cause you know, when there were other big crises like AIDS, the bird flu or SARS or whatever, they tended to happen to other people, but this thing's happening to us, no matter who you are or what you've been doing. In this most frightening year of our lives, I think we've got to kind of take some lessons from it, like, it's quite good to slow down, it's very good to be with your family, have time for people instead of just rushing around, and to me that was the silver lining. It's not over but it's something that's brought a lot of people together, so I hope that we've learned something from it.”