“By Golly, They Do”: Paul McCartney Recalls Reconnecting With John Lennon After Contentious Breakup

When it comes to piquing public interest, conflict between artists tends to stir up more intrigue than amiable collaboration. The more famous the artists, the juicier the gossip, and it was hard to find a fruit more ripe for tabloid fodder and speculation than The Beatles’ breakup. The Fab Four had stopped touring years before their final split, but they were certainly no less in the public eye when a disagreement over Allen Klein shoved a wedge between the childhood friends.

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Indeed, it was that years-long friendship that made The Beatles’ breakup so emotionally visceral. Sure, the music was a notable loss. But The Beatles burst onto the scene specifically as a unit. They were effectively a blueprint for the modern-day rock band at a time when most musical acts featured a main performer with a backing band.

Only a handful of years after The Beatles showed the world what was possible when a group of musicians came together with a common goal, the band made an example of themselves, proving that not even music could overpower creative differences and sour business deals. Fortunately for John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the love between old friends very much could.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney Reunited Post-Beatles Split

The Beatles often peppered their conversations with the press with snarky zingers and one-liners, and the same was true during their split. As each member began to speak out about their grievances, the media started spinning a narrative that painted all four members of the band as adversaries. (Except, perhaps, for Ringo Starr.)

But as Paul McCartney explained in a later interview, that wasn’t the case for his relationship with John Lennon nor his relationship with George Harrison. Despite what public accounts of their split might have suggested, there was great love amongst them.

McCartney and Lennon, who were bandmates before Harrison came along in their early Liverpool years, had a chance to reconnect after the worst of the breakup was over. “The great saving grace was we did put our relationship back together,” McCartney said. “Thank God for that, because I don’t know what I’d do now with him gone. If we hadn’t, I think I would be sort of racked with all sorts of guilt. But we did.”

“One of the first things he said [when] we met after the breakup and things had calmed down,” McCartney continued, “he said, ‘Do they try and pit you against me like they pit me against you? Do they try and do that?’ I said, ‘By golly, they do.’ He said, ‘Yes, that’s good. Good to know. Cause they’re always trying to pit me against you.’”

McCartney said that his relationship with Lennon deepened emotionally in their later years, especially after both men became fathers. Although their life paths were never quite as close as they were when they were one-half of the Fab Four, they remained connected until Lennon’s assassination in 1980.

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