It’s a question that’s haunted music history for over half a century: Who really broke up The Beatles? For decades, fingers have pointed in every direction — at Yoko Ono, at Paul’s ambition, at John’s growing detachment. But now, in an emotional new interview recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Paul McCartney has finally broken his silence. And while his answer is more human than scandalous, it ends with a haunting connection to the one song he says still brings him to tears: “The Long and Winding Road.”
A Slow Goodbye
Paul McCartney begins his story not with blame, but with sorrow.
“It wasn’t one argument. It wasn’t one moment,” he says. “It was a slow drift — the kind that breaks your heart more than an explosion ever could.”
He describes the tension in the studio during the Let It Be sessions. George was frustrated. Ringo was quiet. John was distracted — and deeply immersed in his life with Yoko. And Paul? He was just trying to hold on to something that was already slipping away.
“I wrote The Long and Winding Road as a plea,” he admits. “I think I was trying to write the pain out of me, trying to ask… ‘Can we come home again?’”
John Was the First to Walk Away
McCartney confirms for the first time that it was John Lennon who first voiced a desire to leave the group. It didn’t come with anger — just a tired kind of finality.
“He said he was done,” Paul says. “We kept it quiet, hoping maybe he’d change his mind. But in our hearts, we knew. The road had already split.”
Though fans would later blame Paul for “officially” dissolving the band in legal terms, he reveals that decision came after months of internal heartbreak. He didn’t want to be the villain. But someone had to sign the papers.
“I didn’t want to fight anymore,” he says. “It already felt like a funeral.”
The Song That Still Hurts
What brings Paul to tears even now, decades later, isn’t the betrayal or the blame. It’s the song — the one he wrote when he was trying to keep the dream alive.
“Every time I hear The Long and Winding Road, I see all of us in the studio,” Paul confesses. “I see John not looking me in the eye. I see George tuning his guitar, trying not to speak. I see the end — and I didn’t want it.”
The original version of the song, lush with strings and choirs thanks to Phil Spector’s controversial production, was released in 1970. But Paul always preferred his original, stripped-down demo — raw, emotional, bare.
“That was me. That was the goodbye letter I couldn’t say out loud.”
Fans Respond with Tears and Love
After the interview aired, fans flooded social media with emotional responses. Some wrote that they’d never understood the full weight of the song until now. Others said they could finally let go of decades of bitterness.
“I thought Paul broke up the band,” one fan posted. “Now I know he was the one trying to hold it together.”
And perhaps most moving were the words from younger generations — those born long after The Beatles ended, but still touched by the ache in that melody.
“The long and winding road… will always lead us back to them.”
A Farewell That Never Ends
At 82, Paul McCartney has lived a thousand lives since The Beatles. He’s written symphonies, raised children, played stadiums. But when he sits at the piano alone, the one song that lingers is the one that once broke his heart.
“That road never really ends,” he says. “We all still walk it — me, Ringo, the fans. We’re all still following it, hoping it might lead us back to something we lost.”
And with that, the music fades. But The Long and Winding Road remains — not just a Beatles song, but a quiet eulogy to the band that changed the world.
📺 Source: Paul McCartney Interview at Abbey Road Studios