New Paul McCartney Book Focuses On The 1970s

Paul McCartney seemingly had every reason to be happy in the 1970s. Sure, The Beatles broke up. But he had fame, fortune, full creative control over his newly-birthed solo career, and a loving wife in Linda. A new book says that time period was far darker than perhaps thought.

Music journalist Tom Doyle documents McCartney’s life post-Beatles in his new book "Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s". Doyle details McCartney’s problems with drugs, his volatile relationship with John Lennon, and the creation of rock band Wings.

The New York Daily News has an excerpt:

“His often sleepless nights were spent shaking with anxiety, while his days, which he was finding it harder and harder to make it through, were characterized by heavy drinking and self-sedation with marijuana. . . . When he did get out of bed, he’d reach straight for the whisky, his drinking creeping earlier and earlier into the day. By 3 in the afternoon, he was usually out of it.” McCartney later said he “almost” had a nervous breakdown. That was no almost. Linda found the situation “frightening beyond belief.” The rock star she had married was suddenly a broken, beaten man.

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