THE MEMORY KINDA LINGERS

It's probably not surprising to discover, but Paul McCartney feels haunted by the murder of John Lennon, but he tries not to dwell on it:

"The first thing that goes through your mind is the horrific conditions of his death. That's what always hits me. And you think: "Gosh, my mate, that's what happened to him."

"But, then rather than dwell on that I immediately go to the fantastic times we had and how lucky and privileged I feel to be one of the people who spent the most time with him during his life having met him as a teenager.

"People start these rumours: "He was this, he was that." I say: "Look, I've slept with him."

Hang about... you've done what?

We've done hitch-hiking holidays and we've had to top and tail it because there was only one bed. I say: "I knew him".

Oh, so you mean sleeping with him.

"And, we'd get drunk together and do all those kinds of things that you find out about people.

Paul, though, thinks that Lennon was some sort of saint:

"The bottom line, I think what everybody already knows, he was a fantastic man, really fantastic guy. Just as a man, as an activist, he is one of the great men of the 20th century.

"I'm just very proud to have known him so intimately from when we were kids to virtually the end all the way through."

But then, of course, Lennon did used to accuse McCartney of being a mealy-mouthed hypocrite.

music paul mccartney john lennon