<p id=”par-1_52″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/paul-mccartney/?swcfpc=1″>Paul McCartney</a> and <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/john-lennon/?swcfpc=1″>John Lennon</a> were once close, but they grew increasingly distant toward the end of their years with <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/the-beatles/?swcfpc=1″>The Beatles</a>. After the band broke up, their relationship turned outright hostile. McCartney said Lennon made remarks about him that cut deep. He shared one thing Lennon said that felt particularly hurtful.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-paul-mccartney-said-john-lennon-hurt-him-after-the-beatles-broke-up”>Paul McCartney said John Lennon hurt him after The Beatles broke up</h2>
<p id=”par-2_37″>McCartney said that when Lennon began <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/paul-mccartney-named-album-bizarre-insult-john-lennon.html/”>trashing him publicly</a>, it hurt far worse than if a different public figure insulted him. It wasn’t just that Lennon had been his friend; many, many people also respected his opinion.</p>
<p id=”par-3_41″>“When the Beatles had broken up and John was downing me a lot in public, that was probably the worst to take because I knew he [had] an opinion a lot of people listened to,” McCartney said, per <a target=”_blank” href=”https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-biggest-hurt-john-lennon-caused-paul-mccartney/” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Far Out Magazine</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-4_27″>In Lennon’s song “<a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/george-harrison-glad-wasnt-receiving-end-john-lennons-how-sleep.html/”>How Do You Sleep?</a>” he wrote about McCartney, singing “The only thing you done was yesterday.” McCartney said this shot at his music hurt.</p>
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<iframe title=”How Do You Sleep? (Remastered 2010)” width=”925″ height=”694″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/teD9t-lO_o0?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-5_30″>“If it was just a critic saying, ‘Oh, McCartney’s stupid’, you know…” he said. “But when it was John saying, ‘All you ever did was ‘Yesterday,’ I mean… that’s hurtful.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_23″>He believed that this type of insult, coming from Lennon, would be difficult to shake. McCartney worried it would damage his public image.</p>
<p id=”par-7_17″>“It was hurtful,” he said, “because I knew it would stick – like mud to the wall.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-they-argued-viciously-after-the-band-broke-up”>They argued viciously after the band broke up</h2>
<p id=”par-8_36″>In the early 1970s, the former Beatles were locked in a legal dispute. McCartney sued his bandmates and their manager, Allen Klein, to take control of their catalog. This created heightened tensions between McCartney and Lennon.</p>
<p id=”par-9_99″>“I would ring him when I went to New York and he would say, ‘Yeah, what d’you want?’ ‘I just thought we might meet?’ ‘Yeah, what the f*** d’you want, man?’ I used actually to have some very frightening phone calls,” McCartney said, per the book <em><a href=”https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/paul-mccartney-barry-miles/1112584874″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now</a></em> by Barry Miles. “Thank God they’re not in my life anymore. I went through a period when I <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/paul-mccartney-said-john-lennon-angry-beatles-split-phone-calls-frightening.html/”>would be so nervous</a> to ring him and so insecure in myself that I actually felt like I was in the wrong. It was all very acrimonious and bitter.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_6″>Their conversations were brief and acrimonious.</p>
<p id=”par-11_43″>“[A]nother time I called him and it was ‘Yeah? Yeah? Whadda ya want?’ He suddenly started to sound American,” McCartney said. “I said, ‘Oh, f*** off, Kojak,’ and slammed the phone down; we were having those kind of times, it was bad news.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-paul-mccartney-said-he-made-his-peace-with-john-lennon-before-he-died”>Paul McCartney said he made his peace with John Lennon before he died</h2>
<p id=”par-12_22″>As the decade wore on, however, McCartney and Lennon’s relationship settled. They were able to have friendly conversations and spend time together.</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Paul-McCartney-John-Lennon-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Paul McCartney and John Lennon sitting together wearing suits. McCartney sits in profile and Lennon looks at something on a desk.” class=”wp-image-3776350″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Paul McCartney and John Lennon | Val Wilmer/Redferns</figcaption></figure>
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<p id=”par-13_20″>“It was a public hurt,” McCartney said. “Actually, in private, I had made my peace with him before he died.”</p>
<p id=”par-14_19″>He said that by the end of Lennon’s life, they were <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/paul-mccartney-last-conversations-john-lennon-about-making-bread.html/”>able to talk pleasantly</a>, without devolving into arguments.</p>