John Lennon Wrote a Beatles Lyric Because He Felt Guilty for Leaving Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney was the first Beatle to publicly announce that he wasn’t returning to the band, but by this point John Lennon had already told the group that he was quitting. Lennon had grown tired of working with the band and was ready for a new project with his new wife, Yoko Ono. His decision to move on came after years of working closely with McCartney. Though they had a fraught public relationship after The Beatles broke up, Lennon admitted that he felt guilty about leaving McCartney.
Though McCartney has long shouldered the blame for breaking up The Beatles, Lennon left the group first. The band had been dealing with simmering tensions and resentments for a while, and they reached a fracturing point when Lennon announced he was quitting.
“John walked into the room one day and said, ‘I’m leaving the Beatles,’” McCartney recalled on BBC Radio 4, per CNN. “And he said, ‘It’s quite thrilling. It’s rather like a divorce.’ And then we were left to pick up the pieces.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
