Paul McCartney Remembers John Lennon: Dreams, Guitars, and the Bread That Made Them Human — A Profound Reflection on Friendship, Music, and the Moments That Truly Matter
In a November 2023 interview on the podcast “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics,” Paul McCartney spoke emotionally about a dream that brought John Lennon back into his life. “It was one of those lucid dreams,” Paul said, his voice softening. “I was just there, and suddenly there was John. We were just sitting across from each other, like we used to, with guitars in our laps. We didn’t talk about the past or anything heavy. We just played. It felt like he had never left.”
That moment led Paul to reflect on one of their final collaborations, the meditative and lesser-known track “Free as a Bird,” which the surviving Beatles completed in 1995 using John’s old demo vocals. Paul said, “When we were working on ‘Free as a Bird,’ I remember George, Ringo, and I feeling like John was in the room with us. Not in some mystical sense, but in the way he used to challenge us, push the melody, fight for a lyric. That spirit returned.”
During the same interview, Paul shared a backstory he had rarely talked about, the night he and John spent walking through Liverpool in 1960 after playing a tiny gig at The Jacaranda Club. “We had maybe five pounds between us,” Paul laughed. “We weren’t thinking about fame. We just wanted to write something better than the last tune.” They sat under a railway bridge scribbling lines of a song they eventually abandoned, but the moment itself stayed with Paul. “That night, John said, ‘If we make it, we’ll always remember nights like this, not the big shows.’ He was right. It’s those little moments that hit me the hardest now.”
Paul also mentioned a recent recording session during which he used one of John’s old Epiphone Casino guitars, the same one Lennon had played during the “Revolver” sessions. “The second I picked it up, I felt a chill. That guitar had his fingerprints on it. I could hear him telling me, ‘Don’t overthink it, Macca. Just play it raw.’ That voice is still in my head when I’m writing.”
On a different occasion in late 2023, during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Paul told a story that visibly moved the audience. He said he’d found an old cassette in his archive labeled For Paul. “I didn’t even remember him giving it to me. I played it, and it was John doing this silly little voice, mocking an old English music hall tune. It was so him, witty, slightly wicked. I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes.”
One of the most intimate memories Paul shared was about their final phone call. “People always ask if we made peace. Yes, we did. The last time we spoke, we weren’t talking about Beatles stuff. We were talking about bread. Honest to God, bread. He had just learned how to bake, and he was telling me about this wholegrain loaf he was proud of. And I told him Linda made great bread too. It was ordinary, domestic, human. That’s what I miss.”
Paul’s deep emotional recall often leads him to his sketchpad, where he’s known to write small notes to John in the margins of lyrics. “It’s not like I expect him to read them. It’s more for me. Like, I’ll jot down, ‘You’d have hated this line, mate,’ or ‘This bit’s for you.’ It keeps the conversation alive.”
In a brief clip posted on his official social media in December 2023, Paul sat at a piano and played a soft, unreleased instrumental. The caption simply read, “Thinking of you, John.” Fans across the world flooded the comments with messages of love, memories, and gratitude.
Some bonds never fade, they simply change shape and find new ways to speak.