Paul McCartney has absolved Yoko Ono of any responsibility for splitting up The Beatles in a new interview with legendary broadcaster David Frost.
Their discussion is set to be aired next month and in it Paul states that Yoko Ono’s relationship with John Lennon was not the main reason for the bands demise.
The English newspaper The Guardian has bee releasing extracts from Frost’s interview in which McCartney says that he found Yoko sitting in on The Beatles recording sessions difficult but in no way did he blame her for the groups split.
McCartney said, “She certainly didn’t break the group up, the group was breaking up. When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him. So it was time for John to leave, he was definitely going to leave one way or another.”
The former Beatle then goes on to credit Yoko for inspiring Lennon to write such hits as Imagine, adding, “I don’t think he would have done that without Yoko, so I don’t think you can blame her for anything.”
McCartney did save room to criticise Allen Klein, the businessman who replaced the groups manager Brian Epstein upon his death in 1967. The Liverpudlian even went as far as to punch a photo of Klein and said that he “wanted to fight Klein.”
Frost and McCartney’s interview ill be aired on Al Jazeera English next month, with the series starting on November 6.