Paul McCartney has revealed it is a misconception that The Beatles hated each other after they broke up and admits reading negative coverage about himself was "hurtful".
In a candid interview with British GQ, the 78-year-old singer said it was natural that the band would argue because they were like a "family".
"And families have disputes," he said. "And some people want to do this and some people want to do that."
McCartney, who was due to headline Glastonbury's 50 anniversary festival this summer, appeared to blame The Beatles' then-manager Allen Klein for the band’s demise in 1970.
"I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other," he said.
"What I realise now is that, because it was a family, because it was a gang, families argue. And families have disputes. And some people want to do this and some people want to do that."
"So I think what came about after that… the only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple – and to release Get Back by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release Anthology and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue the band.
"If I hadn't done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein.
"The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did.
"I said 'Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein,’ and I was told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it. ‘You’ve got to sue the Beatles.’"
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McCartney went on to share that reading negative coverage about himself was "hurtful" and recalled an interview John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, gave.
"I remember reading an article, an interview with Yoko, who, okay, she was a big John supporter, I get that, but in this article she goes, "Paul did nothing. All he ever did was book studio,"' he said.
'And I'm going, "Err? No…" And then John does this famous song, How Do You Sleep?, and he’s going, "All you ever did was Yesterday…" And I’m going, "No, man."
"But then you hear the stories from various angles and apparently people who were in the room when John was writing that, he was getting suggestions for the lyrics off Allen Klein. So, you see the atmosphere of "Let’s get Paul. Let’s nail him in a song…"
"And those things were pretty hurtful."
