Sir Paul McCartney recently sat down for a candid interview with the U.K. edition of Esquire and spoke about John Lennon's death. McCartney admitted that he was frustrated with being compared to his former Beatles counterparts, and that frustration grew significantly after the 1980 shooting death of Lennon. McCartney said Lennon became the more famous Beatle after his assassination because of revisionism.
"The Beatles split up and we were sort of all equal. George did his record, John did his, I did mine, Ringo did his. It was as we were during the Beatles' times. We were equal," McCartney told Esquire. "When John got shot, aside from the pure horror of it, the lingering thing was, 'OK, well now John's a martyr. A JFK.' So what happened was, I started to get frustrated because people started to say, 'Well, he was The Beatles.' And me, George and Ringo would go, 'Er, hang on. It's only a year ago we were all equal-ish.'"
McCartney also said he was annoyed that his name always comes second to Lennon's on the band's songwriting credits, but when he was asked if he thinks his name will be forever linked with Lennon, his response said "hopefully."
The 73-year-old rock icon also reflected on what set the Beatles apart from other acts during the time they were active, before the band's split in 1970s, NME reports.
"You name me another group of four chaps, or chapesses, who had what The Beatles had. Lennon's skill, intelligence, acerbic wit, McCartney's melody, whatever he's got, Harrison's spirituality, Ringo's spirit of fun, great drumming," McCartney said. "We all played, which is pretty hard."
