To the world, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were two-fourths of The Beatles. To each other, they were bandmates and best friends, until creative differences drove them apart in 1970.

The Beatles were no more, and the longtime friends, who had known each other as teenagers in Liverpool and had performed side by side through their most formative seasons, severed ties for a few years before mending their relationship was even a possibility. 

Let’s learn more about the intricacies of Lennon and McCartney’s rift and reunion to see how one inspired the other to create again.

POST-BREAKUP BLUES AND BANTER

In 2021, McCartney gave more insight into their public divide in his book, The Lyrics: 1965 to the Present, writing, “When we broke up, and everyone was now flailing around, John turned nasty. I don’t really understand why. Maybe because we grew up in Liverpool, where it was always good to get in the first punch of a fight.”

Following the breakup, Lennon made several public (and quite hurtful) comments about the Beatles that did not sit well with McCartney, who had sued his bandmates to protect the band’s financial assets. Lennon called the Beatles “crap,” dismissed them as rubbish, and said he didn’t believe in them. Hearing all of this only extended the distance between the former friends.

McCartney and Lennon battled publicly for years, with not-so-subtle disses hidden in the lyrics of their solo work, until they slowly but surely found more civil ways to communicate.

“At first, after the breakup of the Beatles, we had no contact,” McCartney revealed, “but there were things we needed to talk about. Our relationship was a bit fraught at times because we were discussing business, and we would sometimes insult each other on the phone. But gradually, we moved past that, and if I was in New York I would ring up and say, ‘Do you fancy a cup of tea?'”

After the birth of Lennon’s second son, Sean, they eventually bonded over parenthood, something they shared.

THE MCCARTNEY SONG THAT INSPIRED LENNON

Lennon took a five-year hiatus from music to raise Sean with his partner, Yoko Ono, and it wasn’t until he heard McCartney’s “Coming Up” in 1980 that he felt inspired to return to the studio.

McCartney knew his former bandmate was a fan of the song, stating, “John described ‘Coming Up’ somewhere as ‘a good piece of work.’ He’d been lying around not doing much, and it sort of shocked him out of inertia. So it was nice to hear that it had struck a chord with him.”

Lennon returned to the studio in 1980, creating what would become his final album, Double Fantasy, released in November that year. On December 8, 1980, while returning home from the studio, he was tragically shot and killed.

McCartney recalled their final conversations as warm and bringing them closer to repairing what had been lost to differences within The Beatles.

“I’m very grateful for how we reconnected in those last few years, and for the good times we shared before he was murdered. Without question, it would have been the worst thing in the world for me if he’d been killed while we were still on bad terms.”

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