One of the founding members of The Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney, recently attended an on-stage interview at Southbank Centre in London, UK. The star was promoting his new book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which tells some behind-the-scenes stories about his most famous songs. During the interview, he opened up about losing his friend John Lennon.

Lennon and McCartney grew up together in the 1950s in Liverpool, UK.

After meeting as teenagers, they eventually went on to write and perform music together as The Quarrymen, before going on to begin The Beatles – alongside George Harrison and Pete Best.

But the pair’s life-long union came to a devastating end on December 7, 1980, when Lennon was assassinated in New York outside his home, The Dakota. He was just 40-years-old and left behind his wife, Yoko Ono, and two sons, Julian Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon. 

McCartney recalled never having told his best friend Lennon that he loved him.

Speaking at the interview, he said: “As 16-year-old, 17-year-old Liverpool kids, you could never say that. It just wasn’t done.”

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McCartney went on: “So I never did… really just say: ‘John, love you man.’

“I never got round to it. So now it’s great just to realise how much I love this man.”

The Hey Jude singer also gave a description of what it was like spending his formative years with Lennon as a friend.

In 1970 The Beatles split up and Lennon and McCartney had fallen out of friendship.

At this time, they argued, wrote pointed songs about one another, and prompted a number of legal battles against each other.

Despite this, they eventually made up and had reconnected before 1980.

He wrote in his new book: “I was very glad of how we got along in those last few years, that I had some really good times with him before he was murdered.”

McCartney continued: “Without question, it would have been the worst thing in the world for me, had he been killed when we still had a bad relationship.

“I would’ve thought: ‘Oh, I should’ve, I should’ve, I should’ve…’ It would have been a big guilt trip for me.

“But luckily, our last meeting was very friendly. We talked about how to bake bread.”

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