Has Paul forgotten a lot over the years and/or have the years erased the bitterness? He brushed off the question of the barefoot crossing of Abbey Road totally ignoring the whole “Paul is dead” publicity stunt. And, maybe he didn’t want to harp on it, but it sure sounded like he wanted to downplay the hard feelings between himself and John Lennon…or, have the years sweetened the memories? Your thoughts?
I thought “Paul is dead” was a fan rumor, not a publicity stunt. The Beatles press office openly denied it.
The interviewer did not seem to want to elicit any attacks on John, and after all these years, especially after John’s death, I’m sure Paul sees no benefit to anyone in airing dirty laundry that is now nearly 50 years old. He did say they were all pissed that John wanted Yoko in a Beatles publicity photo. His answer was short and sweet and the enmity was drained away: They were very much in love and he wanted her to be everywhere with him.
The Paul is Dead nonsense, which the Beatles never had anything to do with, is simply too stupid for McCartney to dignify with an answer. That’s what he said then and properly so.
He and John reconciled before John’s murder, and John has been dead for almost 40 years. I am not at all surprised that Paul doesn’t want to linger on a long-buried beef with a long-buried friend. Time making the good memories solidify while the negative ones get softened, not wanting to spend mental energy on negativity, not wanting to speak ill of the dead, not wanting to talk about his own less laudable behavior in that era…all of that likely plays into wanting to push that aside.
I think that all of this is true.
In addition, I think that Paul is probably in a pretty good place, mentally and emotionally, these days. Losing Linda to cancer, at a fairly young age, was undoubtedly devastating to him, and his subsequent marriage to (and divorce from) Heather Mills was quite tumultuous.
But, by all accounts I’ve read, his marriage to Nancy Shevell is strong, and they seem to be good for each other. When he was married to Mills, and I’d see him on TV, he just didn’t look good (to my eyes). Today, he looks better than he did a decade ago, IMO.
Given all of that, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just isn’t interested in revisiting the bad blood that occurred between him and one of his dearest friends, four to five decades ago. He’s moved on, and he clearly would rather remember the things about John that he loved.
Anyway, as little a fan of Jerry Lewis as I ever was, I did admire the fact that he always spoke so respectfully of Dean Martin later. Not that I read his book or anything.