and sharing the spotlight. A “gutsy” amateur whom he
taught the rudiments, Linda overcame understandable
stage fright and became Wings’ “cheerleader,” McCart-
ney told journalist Tom Doyle. “She had so much spirit,
she became the heart of the band.”
The togetherness they shared onstage and
off helped create a closeness not often seen among
showbiz unions. At the time of Linda’s death—from
breast cancer in 1998 at age 56— the pair had spent
fewer than a dozen nights apart, McCartney estimated.
The triumphant 1976 Wings Over America tour—
which found McCartney (and family) back in
the U.S.A., playing sold-out stadiums full of ecstatic
Beatles fans 10 years after his former group’s
last tour—launched him on a career that would
make him staggeringly wealthy. Along with business
exec wife Nancy Shevell’s earnings, McCartney’s
net worth was estimated by Money magazine at $1.2
billion and would earn the once working class Liv-
erpudlian a knighthood and Sir Paul’s place among
Britain’s peerage. Today the remarried grandad Mc-
Cartney is still making music; in 2018-19 he toured in
support of a well-reviewed new album, Egypt Station.
In January 1969 the Beatles recorded McCartney’s
anthemic ballad “Let It Be,” its opening line, “When
I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes
to me,” inspired by a dream of the mum he’d lost
12 years before. There were troubled times ahead
for the band, which survived the single’s release, in
March 1970, in name only. But the song ’s message,
and McCartney’s exquisite performance, perhaps
provided a beacon for the Beatles. The band, sensing
if not knowing that the end was near, let their differ-
ences be and would soon be making music, author
Mark Hertsgaard wrote, “as inspired and masterful
as any in their career.”
36 THE BEATLES 1969 PEOPLE
