“You Can Call Them Wings, but It’s Paul McCartney Music”: What John Lennon Really Thought of McCartney’s Second Band

John Lennon had a successful career after the Beatles. Though they didn’t rival the name recognition of the Beatles, Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band earned him a fair amount of hits. But he wasn’t the only ex-Beatle to try their hand at a second band. Paul McCartney also jumped into a new collaborative venture, Wings, after the Beatles broke up. It proved to be wildly successful, even outselling the Beatles at one point. If you’ve ever wondered what Lennon thought of McCartney’s success with his second band, find out below.

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[RELATED: The Timeless Beatles Ballad That Made John Lennon Resent His Shared Credits With Paul McCartney]

John Lennon’s Opinion on Paul McCartney’s Second Band, Wings

Wings got off to a rocky start. They weren’t instant successes, to say the least. But once they hit their stride, there was no stopping them. They became a mammoth success for McCartney, who likely wondered if he would ever have the band experience again after the Beatles fallout. Lennon, who was famously critical of McCartney, had some surprisingly positive words for Wings.

“Band on the Run is a great album,” Lennon once said of Wings’ name-making album. “Wings is almost as conceptual a group as Plastic Ono Band. Plastic Ono was a conceptual group, meaning whoever was playing was the band. And Wings keeps changing all the time. It’s conceptual. I mean, they’re backup men for Paul. It doesn’t matter who’s playing. You can call them Wings, but it’s Paul McCartney music. And it’s good stuff.”

Lennon wasn’t always complimentary of McCartney’s music, but he knew to give credit where it was due.

The Other Side of the Story

While Lennon’s comments paint him as a Wings supporter, other opinions tell a different story. According to Beatle-ographers, Lennon was “jealous” of McCartney’s success with Wings. His former songwriting partner’s stadium-filling sound was, apparently, a sore spot.

“He spoke so lovingly of Paul,” radio personality Elliot Mintz once said. “But then when John was not making any music between 1975 and almost ‘80, and Paul would have these mega-hits with Wings, John became insanely jealous about that. He was jealous of the amount of attention and accolades, and the fact that Paul was filling stadiums.”

While Lennon may have been jealous of McCartney’s success, there was really no reason for that feeling. McCartney and Lennon operated in different spaces after the Beatles. There was room enough in rock for both of them as solo artists.

(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)