And Finally Artist News

Paul McCartney recalls masturbating with John Lennon

By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 12 September 2018

In a new interview with GQ, Paul McCartney says that The Beatles benefitted as a band from a closeness developed in their early years together, before they became famous. As a group, this included huddling together for warmth at night while on tour. Although, as teenagers, he and John Lennon got a head start.

“What it was, [I] was over at John’s house, and it was just a group of us”, he says. “And instead of just getting roaring drunk and partying, we were all just in these chairs, and the lights were out, and somebody started masturbating, so we all did”.

As they went on, the young Lennon, McCartney et al would shout out names to, er, aid things along. “We were just, ‘Brigitte Bardot!’ ‘Woo!’ And then everyone would thrash a bit more”. Which all went fine until someone decided to derail the proceedings. “I think it was John [who] said, ‘Winston Churchill!'” recalls McCartney.

None of this was that big a deal, or even something that they thought much about afterwards, McCartney adds. “I think it was a one-off”, he says. “Or maybe it was like a two-off. It wasn’t a big thing. But, you know, it was just the kind of thing you didn’t think much of. It was just a group. Yeah, it’s quite raunchy when you think about it. There’s so many things like that from when you’re a kid that you look back on and you’re, ‘Did we do that?’ But it was good harmless fun. It didn’t hurt anyone. Not even Brigitte Bardot”.

For more insights of this kind – such as whether or not there were Beatles orgies, and info on McCartney’s frog massacre, his discovery of DNA, and ongoing anxieties around the break up of the band – read the full interview here.