December 29, 2012 15:29

Yoko Ono discusses Beatles split in long-lost interview

Singer discusses issues which drove Fab Four apart in decades-old interview

Photo Gallery: The Beatles

A decades-old interview in which Yoko Ono discusses The Beatles' split has surfaced.

The Huffington Post reports that Ono originally gave the interview to music industry figure Joe Smith in 1987, but the audio footage of the two discussing the demise of the Fab Four has only recently surfaced and is now available as an audio file from the Library Of Congress.

In the interview, Ono likens the band's split to a "divorce" and said that although her late husband John Lennon had felt "very good" about the breakup, there had been tensions within the group. "The Beatles were getting very independent," she said. "Each one of them [was] getting independent. John, in fact, was not the first who wanted to leave The Beatles. [We saw] Ringo [Starr] one night with Maureen [Starkey Tigrett], and he came to John and me and said he wanted to leave."

"George [Harrison] was next, and then John," she added. "Paul [McCartney] was the only one trying to hold The Beatles together. But the other three thought Paul would hold The Beatles together as his band. They were getting to be like Paul's band, which they didn't like."

Earlier this year, Ono thanked Paul McCartney for saying that she didn't break up The Beatles. Ono has long been held responsible for the demise of the band, but McCartney revealed that Ono's relationship with John Lennon played no part in the band's split and that they were already breaking up before she became involved with the singer.

It was recently revealed, meanwhile, that Ono has designed a new fashion range inspired by Lennon, with items including an LED jockstrap, trousers with a hand stitched over the crotch, a pair of boots with a handy receptacle for holding incense in and a jumper with strategically placed nipple holes.

The world's greatest music magazine is now available as a digital edition! For exclusive content you won't find on NME.COM, download here on your iPad/iPhone and here on your Kindle Fire or Nook.

Share on Facebook