The Beatles Were ‘Terrible, Terrible Judges of Character,’ Making Them Easy Targets for Scammers

The Beatles were a group of four, but they required many more people behind the scenes to support them. Many, like their longtime producer George Martin, proved to be excellent connections for the band, helping them improve their music. Others were not as beneficial for the band. According to Ron Kass, the former president of Apple Records, the band trusted many people they should not have.

Those who knew The Beatles said they were not good judges of character

For much of The Beatles’ time as a band, they relied on their manager, Brian Epstein. He had concerns about their judgment when it came to other people.

“And as Brian once said, the boys were very bad judges of character,” press officer Derek Taylor said in the book All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines.

After Epstein’s death, the band took on more business roles, which the people around them said was a bad thing. The band trusted people they shouldn’t have, seemingly viewing themselves as above getting scammed.

“They were terrible, terrible judges of character,” said Apple Records President Ron Kass. “They were boys from Liverpool who thought they couldn’t be taken, but they knew nothing.” 

Among these people were their manager Allen Klein and friend of the band Alex Mardas.

George Harrison said that The Beatles should not have trusted Alex Mardas

When The Beatles worked on building Apple Studios, they hired Mardas to update their recording equipment. According to Kass, Mardas had many fantastical inventions over the years, and he told the band he could design a 72-track studio for them.

The resulting studio was nothing like what he promised. There was no soundproofing, mixing desk, or connecting port between the control room and studio. Upon reflection, the band realized they should not have trusted him.

“Alex’s recording studio at Apple was the biggest disaster of all time,” George Harrison said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “He was walking around with a white coat on like some sort of chemist but didn’t have a clue what he was doing. It was a sixteen-track system and he had sixteen little tiny speakers all around the walls. You only need two speakers for stereo sound. It was awful. The whole thing was a disaster and had to be ripped out.”

Their disagreement over Allen Klein did catastrophic damage to the band

The Beatles’ decision to trust Klein ended up being even more disastrous for them. Paul McCartney did not trust the new manager, but the other three Beatles did. As a result, any business discussions amongst the musicians grew frosty, and they ultimately broke up.

Klein continued to manage Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr’s solo careers, but they grew suspicious of his business dealings. By 1973, they all announced that they would be ending their relationships with him.

“There are many reasons why we finally gave him the push, although I don’t want to go into the details of it,” Lennon said in 1973, per the book The Beatles Diaries Volume 2: After the Breakup. “Let’s say possibly Paul’s suspicions were right … and the time was right.”