Paul was ‘hurting too much’ to keep The Beatles going after John Lennon left the band in 1970, the star has revealed in a new interview.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, Paul, spoke candidly about the end of the world’s most successful group, who split shortly after John married Yoko Ono in 1969.
Radio host asked Hey Jude hitmaker Paul: ‘Why didn’t you say to yourself ‘I am going to keep the Beatles going, and I am going to do it with George [Harrison] and Ringo [Starr]?”
Paul responded: ‘When families break up, it’s to do with the emotion and the emotional pain.
‘You can’t just think of a smart idea like that at the time. You’re hurting too much so it wasn’t going to happen.’
The Help! singer also said the band did not give George Harrison his due credit as a songwriter, saying: ‘It was easy to underestimate George because me and John had always written most of the stuff.
‘But then he started to get interested — and boy did he bloom. He wrote some of the greatest songs ever.’
The star also revealed that he believes The Beatles are better than fellow legendary band The Rolling Stones during his interview.
Stern let it be known he thought The Beatles are the better band, which prompted the legendary band’s vocalist and bassist to laugh and add: ‘You know Howard, you know you’re going to persuade me to agree with that one.
‘I’ve always said it,’ McCartney continued before heaping praise on the Start Me Up rockers.
‘But the thing is the Stones are a fantastic group. I go to see them every time they come out. They’re a great, great band.’
McCartney then elaborated on some of the differences between the two iconic British bands.
‘They’re so rooted in the blues and so when they’re writing stuff it’s to do with the blues. Where as we had a little more influences,’ the Liverpool native explained.
‘Keith [Richards] once said to me man you were lucky, you had four singers in your band. And he said we got one. So, there’s a lot of differences.’
But in the end, Sir Paul let it be known who he thought was best.
‘I love The Stones but I’m with you [Stern] – The Beatles were better.’
McCartney went on to talk about how the band’s were great friends despite always trying to one-up each other when it came to new material.
‘We still are [friends] and we admire each other,’ he said, before adding that he thought their rivalry ‘was kind of cool.’
The Beatles have long been regarded as arguably the most influential band of all-time, while the Rolling Stones earned the moniker of being the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band.
Paul called into SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show from the English countryside amid the global coronavirus crisis.
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