Jun 3, 2004 • 1 min read

McCartney talks drugs and the Beatles

Paul McCartney tells Uncut he once took heroin by mistake and played with cocaine for about a year, and says drugs influenced the Beatles' songwriting less than people assume.

Shock revelations in Uncut this month - the Beatles took drugs. How they covered that one up we'll never know.

Speaking to the magazine Paul McCartney admits he once took heroin, but by mistake: "I didn't realise I'd taken it - I was just handed something and smoked it. It didn't do anything for me," adding he played with cocaine "for about a year" but was "never completely crazy" about it.

On the influence drugs had on the band's song writing he says it is "pretty obvious" that 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' was inspired by LSD, and other songs made "subtle hints" about narcotics. But he adds that it is "easy to overestimate" the influence of drugs on the Beatles' material, saying: "Just about everyone was doing them in one form or another. We were no different. But the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time."

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