Paul McCartney just opened up like never before and spoke about the backlash that he personally received for the breakup of his band The Beatles.

McCartney shocked the world when he announced that the band was breaking up back in 1970. Later that year, McCartney sued the band because of issues with fellow member John Lennon’s manager, Allen Klein.

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“I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other,” McCartney, 78, told British GQ. “What I realize now is that, because it was a family, because it was a gang, families argue. And families have disputes. And some people want to do this and some people want to do that.”

He added that the only way he was able to access The Beatles’ discography was if he sued the band.

“If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did,” McCartney explained. “I said ‘Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein,’ and I wasn’t told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it. ‘You’ve got to sue The Beatles.’”

After McCartney filed his lawsuit, Lennon released his famous song “How Do You Sleep?” which was believed to be a diss track.

“Well, as you can imagine, that was horrendous and it gave me some terrible times. I drank way too much and did too much of everything,” McCartney said. “And it was crazy, but I knew that was the only thing to do, because there was no way I was going to save it for me, because there was no way I was going to work that hard for all my life and see it all vanish in a puff of smoke. I also knew that, if I managed to save it, I would be saving it for them [the rest of The Beatles] too. Because they were about to give it away. They loved this guy Klein. And I was saying, ‘He’s a f–king idiot.’”

“I think I was thought to be the guy who broke The Beatles up and the bastard who sued his mates,” he added. “And, believe me, I bought into that. That’s the weirdest thing. It was so prevalent that for years I almost blamed myself. I knew that that was stupid and when we eventually got back together I knew it was silly, but I think it spawned a lot of people who thought that of me.”

Thankfully, McCartney reconciled with Lennon before his death in 1980.

“I was very lucky in that respect,” McCartney said. “We settled our family squabble and I was able to see him and to speak to him on a number of occasions, so we were friends till the end.”

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