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Paul McCartney has said that The Beatles most likely suffered from mental health issues, but they were reluctant to discuss it at the height of their fame.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times, McCartney said he and his bandmates – Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon and George Harrison – were more likely to make fun of their issues in order to hide them.
When asked if the group experienced mental health issues, he said: “Yes, I think so. But you talked about it through your songs.
“You know, John would. ‘Help! I need somebody,’ he wrote. And I thought, ‘Well, it’s just a song,’ but it turned out to be a cry for help.”
He went on: “Same kind of thing happened with me, mainly after the break-up of the band. All of us went through periods when we weren’t as happy as we ought to be.
“Ringo had a major drinking problem. Now he’s Mr Sober of the Year! But you know there were a lot of things we had to work through, but you’re right — you didn’t talk about mental health.”
Explaining that the group were “reasonably well adjusted” to fame, he added: “It was something really that, as four guys, you were more likely to make fun of than be serious about. And the making fun of it was to hide from it.
“But having said all that, we were reasonably well adjusted, I think.”
In the same interview, McCartney opened up on Peter Jackson’s upcoming Beatles documentary Get Back – and said it provided confirmation in his own mind that he wasn’t responsible for The Beatles‘ split.
McCartney’s comments come as he prepares to release ‘McCartney III‘ in December, which completes his eponymous record trilogy following 1970’s ‘McCartney’ and 1980’s ‘McCartney III’.
It marks the musician’s eighteenth solo release, which was recorded during the coronavirus lockdown and follows 2018’s ‘Egypt Station’.
Describing the album’s creation, he recently admitted that music has been his “silver lining” during lockdown.
FOR HELP AND ADVICE ON MENTAL HEALTH:
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- MIND – For mental health support, advice and awareness
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
- Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
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