John Lennon Threatened to Punch Anyone Who Insulted Paul McCartney, According to Alice Cooper
Even During Their Feud, Paul McCartney and John Lennon Still Defended Each Other
When the other three Beatles signed with Klein, Paul McCartney was forced to take drastic measures that would affect their relationship forever. In an effort to dissolve the band's partnership so he wouldn't be tied to Klein, the bassist took his former bandmates to court. McCartney, to this day, acknowledges that his decision was a big part of what led to the feud, but at the same time, it was inevitable.
After Lennon left England, he and McCartney stopped seeing each other for a while, but they were certainly still thinking and talking about each other. More importantly, even though their songwriting partnership had effectively ended with The Beatles (except for "Give Peace a Chance," but that's a different story), they were still influencing each other's writing. They were both writing songs about each other, mostly to attack each other, and that, apparently, made people think that they could get on their good side by badmouthing the other to them. But according to Alice Cooper, who was friendly with Lennon in the '70s, they quickly learned that wasn't the way to go.
"When they were after each other’s throats, when it came to the breakup and all that stuff, if anybody in the Vampires back in those days – that was our drinking club – if anybody said anything bad about Paul, John would take a swing at you, because that was his best friend," Cooper explained.
"You are not allowed to talk about their best friends. They were best friends no matter what was going on in the whole thing."
The same thing, it seems, happened with George Harrison. The Quiet Beatle wasn't as angry with McCartney as Lennon was, but they still had a strained relationship at the time. In fact, Harrison played guitar on Lennon's diss track, "How Do You Sleep?" But he wouldn't stand for anyone insulting his childhood friend, even when he was actively bashing him. Jim Keltner, a session drummer who worked with both Lennon and Harrison in the early '70s, explained that, while they worked together, the two of them would make "really brutal" comments about their former bandmate.
Source: collider.com/Val Barone
