Times does indeed heal wounds.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Paul McCartney reflects on his career as a member of the Beatles and says he and John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, are in a good place.
Ono has long been blamed for breaking the band up after she became involved with Lennon. McCartney said the group didn’t do well with her constant presence back then.
“We weren’t sexist, but girls didn’t come to the studio — they tended to leave us to it,” he said. “When John got with Yoko, she wasn’t in the control room or to the side. It was in the middle of the four of us.”
But McCartney said his “big awakening was, if John loves this woman, that’s gotta be right. I realized any resistance was something I had to overcome.”
“It was a little hard at first,” he said. “Gradually, we did. Now it’s like we’re mates. I like Yoko.”
McCartney and Ringo Starr are the only surviving members of the Fab Four. Macca told Rolling Stone the discussion of a reunion has not come up as they have both pursued their solo careers.
“We come together for things like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” McCartney said. “But to actually tour together — leave well enough alone.”
There is some unreleased music that McCartney digs, though he questions if it would be worthwhile to put it out now.
“The thing about the Beatles — they were a damn hot little band,” he said. “No matter what you hear, even stuff that we thought was really bad — it doesn’t sound so bad now. Because it’s the Beatles.”
The legendary singer also said he listens to hip hop as part of his musical “education” — he’s seen Kanye West, Jay Z and Drake in concert — but hesitates to call collaborator West “a genius.”
“I don’t throw that word around,” McCartney laughingly said about West, who he worked with on tracks “All Day,” “FourFiveSeconds” and “Only One.” “I think he’s a great artist.”