Paul McCartney admits he still gets ‘very emotional’ listening to song about John Lennon: ‘It was certainly heartfelt’

McCartney wrote ‘Dear Friend’ as a way to talk to his former bandmate after The Beatles split

Paul McCartney has described how he still finds listening to a song he wrote about John Lennon to be an emotional experience.

Reflecting on his track “Dear Friend”, which was included on the debut Wings album Wild Life, the 79-year-old explained that it was written as a way to talk to his former bandmate after The Beatles split in 1970.

Responding to a Q&A posted on PaulMcCartney.com, the musician commented: “With ‘Dear Friend’, that’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up. I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back.”

“I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs [remastering works-in-progress] in the car,” he continued. “And I thought, ‘Oh god.’ That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed.’

“Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s true!’ I’m trying to say to John, ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool.’”

McCartney said he felt relief that he and Lennon did reconcile, “because it would have been terrible if he’d been killed as things were at that point and I’d never got to straighten it out with him”.

Lennon was shot dead aged 40 in 1980 by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman, as he left his apartment in The Dakota building.

McCartney added that “Dear Friend” was him “reaching out” to Lennon, and so he felt it was “very powerful in some simple way”.

“It was certainly heartfelt,” he said.

A reissue of Wild Life will be released as a limited edition, half-speed mastered vinyl pressing on 4 February, to celebrate the album’s 50th anniversary.

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McCartney’s latest album, McCartney III, was released in 2020 to positive reviews. Last year he published The Lyrics: 1956 to The Present, a book tracking 154 songs spanning all stages of his career, including The Beatles, Wings, and his solo work.

Also last year, Peter Jackson released his lengthy documentary Get Back, about the Fab Four’s recording of what would become their final studio album Let It Be.