Forty years after John Lennon was shot and killed, the late icon’s friend and former bandmate Paul McCartney still ponders what could’ve been had Lennon not been murdered.
During an interview with CBS Sunday Morning on Dec. 20, McCartney — who recently dropped his new trilogy-completing McCartney III album — reminisced about the lasting legacy of The Beatles and once again addressed whether the Fab Four might’ve eventually set aside their differences and reunited.
“He was showing no signs of slowing up. You know, he was still making great music,” McCartney says of Lennon’s successful solo career. “The question is: Would we have ever got back together again? I don’t know. We don’t know.”
This isn’t the first time McCartney has discussed whether The Beatles would’ve performed together again after splitting in 1969. In 2012, the legendary songwriter told Rolling Stone that “there was talk of re-forming The Beatles a couple of times but “it didn’t jell, there was not enough passion behind the idea.”
Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman in 1980, followed by George Harrison’s death from cancer in 2001. Ringo Starr and McCartney are the only surviving members of The Beatles.
During his CBS Sunday Morning interview, McCartney also discussed self-recording his new solo album, McCartney III, in isolation at his Sussex studio earlier this year.
“It’s not like working with the band, because I know what I want to hear, and I don’t even have to tell anyone,” McCartney says. “I just said, ‘Let’s do some drums.’ I’ll sit on the drums and I’ll think, ‘OK, I wanted doo doo doo … doo doo dah.’ So, it’s all in my head.”
The 78-year-old artist adds that he didn’t miss receiving feedback from a producer or other musicians during the recording process.
“It’s just a different kind of thing. I sometimes will ask one of my engineers, ‘What do you think?’ Or the guys might have a suggestion. And I will say, ‘No’!” he says.
The third in a trilogy of albums, McCartney III features 11 songs and is the follow-up to 2018’s Egypt Station, which topped sales charts around the globe. The original McCartney album was released 50 years ago, and McCartney II emerged from the ashes of Wings in 1980.
Watch McCartney’s full CBS Sunday Morning interview below.
