Love Me Do, the first song we recorded, John was supposed to sing the lead, but they changed their minds and asked me to sing lead because they wanted John to play harmonica.
My mum died when I was 14. That is a kind of strange age to lose a mother. John lost his mum when he was 17.
Linda’s at her best when she’s doing you a meal at home. That’s when you see Linda. She cooks, she looks after the kids.
I’m often reading a magazine and hearing about someone’s new record, and I think : “Oh, boy, that’s gonna be better than me”. It’s a very common thing.
I’m a pretty hands-on dad and make the most of my custody. I take care of my little one whenever I can, and she determines what I can do and where I can do it.
I’m always writing songs, and I’ve got a bunch that I want to record.
It’s like a lot of kids; when you tell them someone’s died, they laugh.
I love the past. There are parts of the past I hate, of course.
When you get the money, you still need to keep going; you don’t stop. There has to be something else. I think it’s the freedom to do what you want and to live your dreams.
This was one of the best things about Lennon and McCartney, the competitive element within the team. It was great. But hard to live with.
There are a lot of artists who haven’t lost anything to domesticity. In my case, it probably did happen.
By the time we made “Abbey Road”, John and I were openly critical of each other’s music, and I felt John wasn’t much interested in performing anything he hadn’t written himself.
The strange thing is, we never owned our own publishing; it was always getting bought and sold.
The music publishing I own is fabulous recording.
Drugs had shown me little bits here and there-they had rolled across the carpet once or twice, but I had been able to get them out of my mind.
I’m only 49 years old. I’m still in the middle of this whole thing. I don’t feel like it’s finished at all. I’m still planning to write better songs.
Somewhere down the line everyone must pay for their misdeeds.
I have always adored Mahler, and Mahler was a major influence on the music of the Beatles. John and me used to sit and do the Kindertotenlieder and Wunderhorn for hours, we’d take turns singing and playing the piano. We thought Mahler was gear.
I didn’t earn that much in record royalties. You’ve only got to look at my sales in 1980 to figure that one out.
I guess the ultimate luxury professionally is to be able to change your direction, to work in another medium.