Paul McCartney Reveals the Truth About Yoko and the Beatles Live

Paul McCartney Breaks the Silence: Was Yoko the One Who Broke Up the Beatles? During all that time when people blamed you for the Beatles' breakup. Well, I've been blamed, I don't know, maybe for 30, 40 years now. So you were aware that was happening? Did you know that's what people were saying? Yes, I was very aware because it was like I was being prodded all the time. When you met Yoko, she said she didn't know who the Beatles were, that she only knew you. Well, I don't agree; I have my version of the story. What's your version? My version is that we were in London and Yoko came to my house, back when I was living with Ringo. Someone said, "There's a Japanese lady outside." I said, "Okay, let her in." She came in and said, "It's John Cage's birthday, and we artists want to collect a bunch of manuscripts to give him for his—I don't know if it was his 60th or something—birthday." And I immediately thought, "I don't want to do this," but maybe my friend John would like it. So I told her, "He lives here," and she went to see him, and apparently she got the wrong John. Well, changing the story a bit, we have claims that say that Every time you sang "Get Back" while recording it, John Lennon accused you of staring at Yoko, and he took it as an insult. Do you think those were very paranoid times? I know. Let's be honest, Yoko wasn't well received in the studio; we thought it was just a guy thing. Just popping by the control room quickly, she could slip it to him. But sitting in the studio with us, it was like, "No, sorry, we're working." Did you have the courage to say that to John? No. I didn't. If you had said it, it would have created a real conflict. But it was obvious. It was like they were overstepping their bounds. But John always did that. I couldn't be sensible and say it without it leading to arguments. And it was an unwritten rule: you wouldn't sit in on a session. But Yoko did it, and it created a lot of awkward moments. It's hard to start from scratch with Yoko there because I started writing a song about white walls just because I thought John and Yoko would like that. I wasn't even doing what I liked anymore. She's not an ordinary woman. You have to admit it. And, with all due respect, Paul, weren't you acting passive-aggressively? You're sitting in the studio, just angry. Instead of telling John, in a nice way, that this was hurting you and that you couldn't work with someone watching.