Paul McCartney Grateful For Making Peace With John Lennon

Paul McCartney talks candidly about his former partner John Lennon in the upcoming BBC Radio 2 documentary, John Lennon At 80. In the special, which features the former-Beatle interviewed by Lennon's younger son Sean Lennon, McCartney explains that making his peace with Lennon in the years prior to his 1980 murder meant the world to him: “I always say to people, one of the great things for me was that after all the Beatles rubbish and all the arguing and the business, you know, business differences really. . . that even after all of that, I'm so happy that I got it back together with your dad.”

McCartney, who met Lennon when he was just 15-year-old, added: “It really, really would have been a heartache to me if we hadn't have reunited. It was so lovely too that we did and it really gives me sort of strength to know that.”

He went on to talk about the complexities and success of the Lennon/McCartney partnership, saying, “I think what was important wasn't who was more sophisticated than the other or whatever. And there maybe is some truth that, musically, I had an edge because my dad had shown us some things. I'd learned the guitar chords a bit before John, but it wasn't so much that, the sophistication, it was attitudes. So my attitude would be, 'This is what I want to do' — and then John would bring another edge to it.”

McCartney spoke about the power of the pair's decade-long chemistry: “Boy, we complemented each other. It was a bit ying (and) yang. They say with marriages opposites attract and I think we weren't like madly opposite, but I had some stuff he didn't have, and he had some stuff I didn't have. When you put them together it made something extra, which I think was this.”

During a recent chat with CBS, Paul McCartney revealed that John Lennon worried about his legacy after he had gone, recalling: “I remember John was a bit insecure — (feigns incredulousness) What???? John Lennon??? — And I remember him once, particularly, strangely out of the blue, saying, 'I worry about how people are gonna remember me.' And I was, like, 'John, listen to me — look at me: you're gonna be remembered as one of the greatest people (takes a deep breath) I'm getting choked up. And I say. . . ''Cause you are, y'know, you're fantastic.'”