Paul McCartney - Beatles' Music legend
admits: 'I did drugs'
London
June 4, 2004
Music legend Paul McCartney has revealed he tried heroin while still in the Beatles.
Sir Paul said he also "did coke" while the Sergeant Pepper album was being created.
"I did coke for about a year around that time. Coke and maybe some grass to balance it out. I was never completely crazy with cocaine," he said.
"I'd been introduced to it and, at first, it seemed OK, like anything that's new and stimulating. When you start working your way through it, you start thinking, 'Mmm, this is not so cool an idea', especially when you start getting those terrible comedowns."
In an interview with Uncut magazine, Sir Paul said he had tried heroin "just the once".
"Even then, I didn't realise I'd taken it. I was just handed something, smoked it, then found out what it was.
"It didn't do anything for me, which was lucky because I wouldn't have fancied heading down that road. I suppose I learned from an early age to do things in moderation," he said.
McCartney confirmed that drugs influenced some of the group's songs.
"A song like Got to Get You Into My Life, that's directly about pot, although everyone missed it at the time," McCartney said.
"Day Tripper, that's one about acid. Lucy in the Sky, that's pretty obvious.
"There's others that make subtle hints about drugs, but, you know, it's easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on the Beatles' music.
"Just about everyone was doing drugs in one form or another and we were no different, but the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time," McCartney added.
McCartney also acknowledged that Wings, the band he formed after The Beatles' breakup, was "pretty rough, not terribly good" when it started out.
"There was a time when The Beatles weren't very good, but we were able to be not very good in private," McCartney said.
"Wings had to do it in public and there was always the shadow of The Beatles, which didn't help."
The former Beatle, who is due to perform at this year's Glastonbury Festival, said of his relationship with John Lennon: "The thing about me and John is that we were different, but we weren't that different.
"I think Linda put her finger on it when she said me and John were like mirror images of each other. Even down to how we started writing together, facing each other, eyeball to eyeball, exactly like looking in the mirror."
He added: "On the surface, he was this hard, witty guy, always on hand with a cutting witticism. He appeared caustic, even cruel at times. But really he was very soft.
"John was very insecure. He carried a lot of that from his upbringing, what with his father leaving when he was five. Then, of course, we'd both lost our mothers so we had that in common. Ultimately, we were equals."
Sir Paul said there was "amazing competition" between himself and John Lennon.
"In terms of music, you cannot beat a bit of competition. Of course, there's times when it hurts and it's inevitably going to reach a stage where it's hard to live with.
"Sooner or later, it's going to burn itself out. I think that's what happened at the end of the Beatles," he said.
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