John Lennon Was Worried About His Legacy, Says Paul McCartney

Pop culture may regard John Lennon as an iconoclastic visionary and activist musician — a true legend — but Paul McCartney says his late-friend and Beatles co-founder was far more human than people give him credit for.

McCartney says Lennon, like anyone else, was concerned about how history would treat him after he was gone.

Macca made the comments in his recent 60 Minutes profile, in which he recalled a retrospectively eerie conversation with his writing partner. 

"I remember him once, particularly strangely, out of the blue, saying, 'I worry about how people are going to remember me,'" McCartney explained. "And I was like, 'John, listen to me, look at me. You're going to be remembered as one of the greatest people.'"

McCartney says he worries about the same thing — and he and Lennon aren't that unique.

"...[It] doesn't matter how elevated you get or your reputation gets, you still worry about things...I've heard people say that about me," McCartney continued. "'Oh, you know, he wants to be liked.' But I'm going, 'Doesn't everyone?'"

He outlined how concerns about legacy can strike at anytime in one's life. 

When The Beatles were recording Revolver in 1966, while still very young and at the height of their fame, McCartney said he remembers getting a case of "the horrors" right after the album was finished. 

"I thought the whole album was outta tune," he said. "I listened to it and for some reason just, like, oh my God! And I went to the guys, I said, 'It's outta tune! It's outta — I don't know what we're gonna do." You know? '...[They] got a bit worried and listened to it. They said, 'No, it isn't.' I go, 'Oh, okay.'"

It's all part of the anxiety of being a creative person — and of wanting to be liked, he says. 

McCartney described earlier this year a recurring Beatles nightmare he has where everything is going wrong for the band during a performance.

But he says you learn how to get over it and not sweat the small stuff. 

Photo: Getty Images