All it took was a single decade for the Beatles to completely take over the world. First formed in 1960, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr watched themselves become icons in the music industry. But by 1970, that dream was coming to an end when they released their final album, Let It Be. Marking the end of an era, Beatlemania continues to captivate and inspire. Grateful for the legacy he helped create, McCartney recently admitted that being able to reconnect with Lennon before his death was a “great blessing.”
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On December 8, Lennon stopped to autograph a copy of Double Fantasy for an individual named Mark Chapman. Just a few hours later, after a studio session, Lennon was shot and killed by Chapman. Pronounced dead at the Roosevelt Hospital, the musician was only 40 years old.
In a new documentary called Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, the singer was eternally thankful for getting to speak with his friend one last time. “One of the great blessings in my life is that we made up. It’s beautiful and it’s sad at the same time. You know, we loved each other all our lives.”
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Paul McCartney And John Lennon Nearly Performed On ‘Saturday Night Live’
That moment came when McCartney and his wife, Linda, decided to visit Lennon’s apartment in New York City. Sitting down to watch Saturday Night Live, apparently, Lorne Michaels offered them a great deal of money to perform.
But McCartney recalled how they just forgot about it. “We got kind of excited. We just go down, we show up, hey! But it was like, why? It’d be great for them. Would it be great for us? We’ve come full circle and now we’re off on another journey. So we just decided to just have another cup of tea and forget the whole idea.”
While the past between McCartney and Lennon included a lawsuit and a diss track, time ultimately gave way to forgiveness. Looking back now, the singer has made it clear that the peace they found matters far more than the conflict that once divided them.
(Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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