“I look back on it now like a fan,” Paul McCartney said to Sean Ono Lennon on the mark of what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday.
The Beatles bandmate candidly spoke to Lennon’s youngest son, Sean Ono Lennon, in a special interview for BBC Radio 2. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
McCartney, 78, said he feels “lucky” to have met his bandmate, John Lennon. “How lucky was I to meet this strange teddy boy off the bus, who played music like I did, and we get together, and boy, we complemented each other,” McCartney said in the interview, according to BBC.
Sean, 44, planned out a two-part documentary on his late father—who was killed on December 8, 1980, outside his New York apartment. The tribute features memories of his older brother Julian Lennon and his godfather Elton John.
According to PEOPLE, McCartney revealed the unheard track “Just Fun” that was made by the two at the beginning of their careers in Liverpool. In the interview, he opened up about their early years, making music together.
“There were a few songs that weren’t very good… you know, clearly young songwriters who don’t know how to do it,” McCartney said about their schoolboy attempts to write songs together, before picking up a guitar and playing a short excerpt of the track. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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“Eventually, we started to write slightly better songs and then enjoyed the process of learning together so much that it really took off.”
The Beatles went their separate ways in 1970, and afterward, John and McCartney became estranged for years. McCartney described the “Imagine” singer as a man of many insecurities, who often used his notorious humor as a protective “shield” of confidence.
“Wait a minute; there’s this guy ‘John Lennon’ who’s like a genius, clever, witty, confident, and everything why would he have insecurities? Because we’re all fragile beings,” McCartney said.
As for Lennon’s sons, the two talked about their dad together for the first time. Sean said, listening to his dad’s final album, “Double Fantasy,” is “overwhelming” because it brings back many of his childhood memories of being at the recording studio. Both said that listening to his music is also now like a double-edged sword.
Elton John also made an appearance in the documentary, telling Sean, “When I met your Dad, I felt like I’d known him all my life, and that’s the biggest compliment I can pay him,” according to BBC. John also spoke on the time he biked 8 miles across London to get a copy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band during the 60s and later ended up on the Madison Square Garden stage miles away in New York him at the final Beatles show.
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The full interview, “John Lennon at 80, “will air on October 3 and 4.
