Paul McCartney Facilitated John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Reconciliation

Paul McCartney will always be best known as a member of The Beatles, but true fans know he had a lengthy career with his second band, Wings, after the Fab Four split in 1970.

Wings’ formation and ultimate demise is documented in the new book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, which hit shelves on Tuesday, November 4. While McCartney, now 83, is credited as the author, the book, edited by Ted Widmer, is an oral history that includes interviews from members of Wings as well as McCartney’s family.

While the first Wings album dropped in 1971, he released two albums in 1970 that can be considered precursors to the band: his first solo album, McCartney, and Ram, which he recorded with his then-wife, Linda McCartney. (Linda died of breast cancer in 1998 at age 56.)

“Wings sort of felt like we’d achieved the impossible,” Paul explained in the new book. “I got my second lucky break. At the start, it felt like everyone was saying, ‘You can’t do that!’ And for a while I thought maybe they were right. But I wanted to carry on writing and playing music. Wings was my best shot at that.”

Wings went on to release seven studio albums before the band played their final gig in December 1979. While Paul continued performing as a solo artist, releasing many more albums in the years since, he still incorporates Wings songs into his sets.

Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run.

After The Beatles broke up, Paul wasn’t always on good terms with his childhood friend and former bandmate John Lennon. At one point, though, he did help Lennon through a rough patch in his relationship with Yoko Ono in March 1974. While the couple had been separated, Ono had come to visit Paul and Linda in London. She told the McCartneys that she would reconcile with Lennon if he worked for it.

Paul subsequently traveled to Los Angeles, where Lennon was working with Harry Nilsson, and convinced him to repair things with Ono.

“I sat him down and said, ‘I feel like a matchmaker here, but Yoko still loves you. Do you still love her?’” Paul recalled. “And his guard came down and [he] said, ‘Yes. But I don’t know what to do.’ So I said, ‘Well, Yoko came to see us in London. So, we’ve talked to her and she does still love you, but you’re going to have to work your arse off to win her back.’ … John did just that, and not long after, Sean was born.”

When Paul announced his first solo album in April 1970, he said in a press release that he had no plans to work with The Beatles again. In December of that year, he sued his bandmates — Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — as well as their manager Allen Klein to formally dissolve their partnership.