Paul McCartney Admits He Thought He’d Never Make Music Again After The Beatles — as New Film Revisits Linda, Wings and His Painful Split From John Lennon
Paul McCartney had already reached a level of fame most musicians could never imagine.
But when The Beatles broke apart, McCartney didn’t immediately see another great chapter waiting for him.
He wondered whether his life as a musician might simply be over.
Now 83, McCartney is revisiting that uncertain period in the new documentary Man on the Run, an intimate look at what happened after the world’s biggest band disappeared — and how Linda McCartney, Wings and a willingness to start again helped him rebuild his musical life.
The film also returns to one of the most painful relationships from that period: McCartney’s growing distance from John Lennon.
‘I Thought I’d Never Make Music Again’
A newly released trailer shows McCartney reflecting on his state of mind following The Beatles’ breakup.
Rather than immediately launching himself confidently into a solo career, he describes a period when he believed he might never make music again.
For an artist who had spent the previous decade writing and recording alongside Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the end of The Beatles meant far more than the dissolution of a hugely successful group.
McCartney suddenly had to determine who he was without it.
Man on the Run focuses on that transformation.
According to the documentary’s synopsis, the film follows McCartney through the emotional, personal and artistic challenges that accompanied the breakup and the creation of an entirely different musical life.
Linda Became Central to the Story
At the heart of that next chapter was Linda McCartney.
The documentary uses previously unseen footage, rare archival material and personal interviews to examine the period when Paul and Linda began building a family and making music together.
Linda became part of the new band McCartney formed with Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell.
That band was Wings.
Starting again wasn’t necessarily an easy proposition for someone coming directly from The Beatles.
Instead of attempting to recreate his former group, McCartney was entering another period of experimentation and risk.
The documentary’s official description presents those years as a story of reinvention, family unity and artistic risk-taking.
Wings Had Something Enormous to Prove
The film promises an extensive look at the formation and eventual success of Wings.
The band ultimately produced some of McCartney’s most recognizable post-Beatles music, including the theme for the James Bond film ** Live and Let Die **.
But Man on the Run appears particularly interested in the journey required to reach that point.
Archival footage shows McCartney and Linda during those years, while the film examines how he attempted to establish a new musical identity after being permanently associated with Lennon and The Beatles.
There was also another complicated reality McCartney had to confront.
His relationship with Lennon had changed.
McCartney Revisits Growing Apart From John Lennon
The documentary explores McCartney’s falling out with his former Beatles bandmate.
In the trailer, McCartney acknowledges that he and Lennon were “growing apart.”
It is a particularly significant part of the story because their creative partnership had helped define The Beatles.
Together, Lennon and McCartney had formed one of popular music’s most famous songwriting partnerships.
After the band ended, however, both men were attempting to establish separate lives and careers.
Man on the Run places that changing relationship alongside McCartney’s efforts to move forward with Linda and Wings.
Rather than treating the post-Beatles years simply as another collection of hits, the documentary focuses on the uncertainty and personal upheaval surrounding them.
Rare Footage Brings Linda Back Into the Story
Linda, who died in 1998, appears extensively through archival material.
So do Lennon and George Harrison, while surviving Beatle Ringo Starr is also represented through footage from the period.
For longtime fans, that material promises a more personal window into a time when McCartney was attempting to separate his future from a past that remained impossible to escape.
The documentary runs 115 minutes and is scheduled to arrive on Feb. 27.
An Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Is Behind the Project
Man on the Run is directed and produced by Morgan Neville.
Neville won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for 20 Feet from Stardom, his film exploring the lives and careers of backing singers.
Caitrin Rogers, who also worked on that Oscar-winning documentary, serves as an executive producer.
Alan Lowe edits the film, while its production team includes Chloe Simmons, Meghan Walsh, Scott Rodger, Ben Chappell, Michele Anthony and David Blackman.
But despite the scale of the team and the wealth of archival material, the heart of the film appears remarkably personal.
The Story After The Beatles Wasn’t Inevitable
Today, Wings is firmly established as a major part of McCartney’s musical legacy.
Looking backward, it can be easy to treat that success as the obvious next chapter after The Beatles.
Man on the Run appears determined to show that it didn’t feel inevitable to the man living through it.
McCartney had lost the band that defined his youth.
His extraordinary creative partnership with Lennon was changing.
And he was confronting the possibility that the musical life he had known might be finished.
What followed was not another Beatles story.
It was the story of Paul and Linda McCartney starting over, building Wings and discovering that there could still be music after the end of the band that had changed everything.