Paul McCartney Says Yoko Ono Was an 'Interference in the Workplace' for The Beatles — Here's Why The 81-year-old Grammy winner took a trip down memory lane during a recent podcast episode.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- McCartney says Ono's presence during the recording of 1968's 'The White Album' was 'disturbing.'
- In 2021, McCartney revealed that John Lennon instigated The Beatles' split.
Change in the workplace can be stressful — even for high-profile professionals.
Just ask Paul McCartney. In a new episode for his McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast, the 81-year-old Grammy winner reveals how having John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, join The Beatles' recording sessions put a strain on their process, People reported.
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"Things like Yoko being literally in the middle of the recording session [were] something you had to deal with," McCartney told the poet Paul Muldoon, recalling the band's recording of 1968's The White Album. "The idea was that if John wanted this to happen, then it should happen. There's no reason why not."
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Although the band was "heading toward" a breakup at the time and Ono's presence was "disturbing," the group didn't outright object to having Ono in the studio. Still, McCartney maintains that "none of them particularly liked it."
"It was an interference in the workplace," McCartney explains to Muldoon. "We had a way we worked. The four of us worked with George Martin. And that was basically it. And we'd always done it like that. So not being very confrontational, I think we just bottled it up and just got on with it."
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Fans blamed McCartney for the band's 1970 breakup, but more than half a century later, the co-lead vocalist said it was actually Lennon who initiated the split, CNN reported.
