Yoko Ono talks about other Beatles’ resentment of becoming ‘Paul’s Band’

According to widely spread opinion the Beatles’ breakup is partly due to the fact that the semi-democratic band was on the verge of turning into “Paul McCartney and the Beatles”, Yahoo! News reports.

“John, in fact, was not the first one who wanted to leave the Beatles,” says Yoko Ono in a newly released interview. “Ringo one night with Maureen (Starkey, his first wife) came to John and me and said, well, he wanted to leave. And George was the next, and then John. Paul was the only one who was trying to hold the Beatles together. But then again, the other three felt that Paul was going to hold the Beatles together as his band. They were getting to be like Paul's band, which they didn't like.”

“In the early days Paul and John wrote the songs. Rather, John and Paul,” she said, correcting the order with a chuckle. “George didn’t write much, and Ringo especially didn’t write at all. When George started to write a lot of songs in the end, it was like, who’s gonna get the space? John was really trying to protect George and not ignore him and put (in) as many songs of George’s as possible. But frankly there wasn’t much space for that on one album, and they can’t keep on making double albums. So in a way all three of them were outgrowing the Beatles. I think Ringo was getting interested in film, and George was more interested in playing with Ravi Shankar.

“That was very, very logical, because in the group George is still George and Ringo is Ringo, but when they go outside, George is the Beatle and Ringo is the Beatle and they’re treated differently,” Ono continued. “And in fact George did mention that ‘I feel more comfortable playing with those (other) guys because they understand me and this and that, and here I’m treated like the backing group for Paul.’ And that was the complaint that was expressed may times.