People_USA_The_Beatles_1969_(2019)

an diets Linda concocted and later published in a series

of bestselling cookbooks. Before their kids enrolled in
school, Paul and Linda taught them at home and took
them on the road. “We don’t believe in nannies,” he told

People in 1976, “because the kids end up callin’ them
Mommy.” And so tutors were brought along with the

kids on all family travels, including the lengthy world
tours that lay ahead. “We made it work,” McCartney
said of the children’s unorthodox upbringing. “Linda

and I always said, ‘The main thing is they have good
hearts.’ They all do. They’re also pretty smart.”
The farm was surrounded by a landscape that was, he

said, “so peaceful, the hillsides encourage music.” But
there was little heard for weeks to come in the aftermath

of the Beatles’ breakup when the ever ebullient, always
optimistic McCartney was laid low by debilitating de-
pression. “I just suddenly felt I wasn’t worth anything if I

wasn’t in the Beatles,” he said in 1995. “I took to my bed,

did a lot of drinking. I really lost the plot.”

Finally, with Linda’s help—she “gave me the strength

and courage to work again,” McCartney told People in

1994—he snapped out of it. Setting to work in a make-

shift studio on his farm, he singlehandedly created “a

real homegrown record” titled simply McCartney. Paul’s

1970 solo debut was both his declaration of indepen-

dence from the Beatles and a pledge of his love for his

wife, whom he immortalized in “The Lovely Linda” and

celebrated in “Maybe I’m Amazed.” He soon made plans

to form a new band and take it on the road, presenting a

dilemma for which he hit on a solution as perfect as his

pitch. Where many rockers are led to ruin by the tempa-

tions of the road, McCartney took the one thing that

could save him—his wife and kids—with him. When he

formed Paul McCartney and Wings in 1971, with Moody

Blues guitarist Denny Laine and a group of other veteran

rock road warriors, Linda was on keyboards and vocals

THE BEATLES 1969 PEOPLE 35

ON THE RECORD

Right: Paul leaving

London’s Olympic

Studios after a recording

session with guitarist

Jackie Lomax, who was

signed to the Beatles’

Apple Records.

COVER DEBUT

Opposite: Paul and

Linda posed for a family

portrait 12 hours after the

birth of their first child,

daughter Mary. In 1970

the infant made the cover

of her dad’s first solo

album, shot by her

photographer mother.