{"id":77184,"date":"2025-07-20T05:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T05:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77184\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T05:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T05:06:12","slug":"the-night-lsd-opened-paul-mccartneys-eyes-and-cemented-his-friendship-with-john-lennon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77184\/","title":{"rendered":"The Night LSD Opened Paul McCartney\u2019s Eyes\u2013and Cemented His Friendship With John Lennon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul McCartney<\/a> isn\u2019t known as the most well-versed of his peers when it comes to drugs. He and his Beatles bandmates did their fair share, but they didn\u2019t end up with the same kind of reputation as their edgier counterparts. Drugs, for the Beatles, were seen as more of an artistic pursuit than an addiction. It completely changed their career trajectory. McCartney was the longest holdout on LSD. Eventually, though, he did join his bandmates in partaking in the hallucinogen. Below, learn more about the first time McCartney took the drug, in particular, how it affected his relationship with John Lennon.<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney: \u201cIt\u2019s More Than Peer Pressure, It\u2019s Fear Pressure\u201d<\/p>\n

Though fans aren\u2019t sure of the exact date when McCartney took LSD for the first time, conversations from the Beatle himself pinpoint it to December of 1965. McCartney was more so into weed. McCartney had been trying to hold out on LSD, but eventually the \u201cpeer pressure\u201d from Lennon and his other bandmates got to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was more ready for the drink or a little bit of pot or something,\u201d McCartney once recalled<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019d not wanted to do it, I\u2019d held off like a lot of people were trying to, but there was massive peer pressure. And within a band, it\u2019s more than peer pressure, it\u2019s fear pressure.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes trebled, more than just your mates, it\u2019s, \u2018Hey, man, this whole band\u2019s had acid, why are you holding out? What\u2019s the reason, what is it about you? So I knew I would have to out of peer pressure alone,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd that night I thought, well, this is as good a time as any, so I said, \u2018Go on then, fine.\u2019 So we all did it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Though he might have wanted to hold out, he ended up falling in love with LSD. He once claimed it opened his eyes. He even went so far as to say the drug could be used for the betterment of the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt [LSD] opened my eyes,\u201d McCartney once said<\/a>. \u201cWe only use one-tenth of our brain. Just think of what we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part! It would mean a whole new world if the politicians would take LSD. There wouldn\u2019t be any more war or poverty or famine.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney\u2019s \u201cFreaky Experience\u201d on LSD<\/p>\n

One facet of Paul McCartney\u2019s LSD trip that he\u2019s made sure to mention is how it strengthened his relationship with Lennon. He described a \u201cfreaky experience\u201d with his writing partner, wherein he saw himself in Lennon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked into each other\u2019s eyes, the eye contact thing we used to do, which is fairly mind-boggling,\u201d McCartney once said<\/a> of his experience taking LSD with Lennon. \u201cYou dissolve into each other. But that\u2019s what we did, round about that time, that\u2019s what we did a lot. And it was amazing. You\u2019re looking into each other\u2019s eyes and you would want to look away, but you wouldn\u2019t, and you could see yourself in the other person. It was a very freaky experience, and I was totally blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if we didn\u2019t have quotes like these, it\u2019s easy to spot when LSD changed the Beatles. Their sound took a stark shift in the middle of the \u201960s, denoting their introduction to psychedelics. That shift is seen as a positive by many Beatles fans. And, according to the band, it also helped their relationships. <\/p>\n

Credit: Chris Walter\/WireImage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney isn\u2019t known as the most well-versed of his peers when it comes to drugs. He and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,7657,53324,4185,978,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-77184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-john-lennon","11":"tag-paul-mccartney","12":"tag-rock-music","13":"tag-the-beatles","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114883827120841371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}