In a recent confessional on the Paul McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast, the iconic singer explained how he and John Lennon collaborated on the song Hey Jude.
In this conversation, Paul said that the song was inspired by John Lennon’s firstborn son, Julian, whom John shared with his first wife, Cynthia.
During the interview, Paul said, “The movement you need is on your shoulder.” Now I think it was just me blocking in.”
He then recalled that when he initially played this song for John and Yoko Ono, they adored it.
“When I played it for John and Yoko in my music room on my psychedelic piano — I’m sitting facing this way and they’re standing behind me, almost on my shoulder and they’re listening,” the musician said.
He went on to say, “I’m so pleased with myself playing this new song.”
However, he stated that he had intended to replace this filler verse with a better phrase, but his collaborator intervened to preserve it intact.
The 81-year-old also stated, “I turn around and tell John, ‘Don’t worry. “I will change that.”
“And he looked at me and said, ‘You won’t, you understand? “It’s the best line, innit?” He mentioned his late bandmate and then resigned from the topic.