Paul McCartney and John Lennon Were ‘Standoffish’ and ‘Awkward’ With One Another When They Met

Paul McCartney and John Lennon are one of the most successful duos in music history. They wrote closely together for years, producing some of the biggest hits of the decade. When they first met, they were teenagers in Liverpool. While they would become very close, one of their friends said they did not hit it off right away.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon acted standoffish when they first met

Lennon and McCartney met at a church festival. Lennon and his band at the time, the Quarry Men, performed, and McCartney introduced himself afterward. Their meeting was a bit awkward.

“In their initial encounter, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney acted — at first — almost standoffish,” wrote Lennon’s childhood friend, Pete Shotton, in the book The Beatles, Lennon and Me. “John (as I already knew) was notoriously wary of strangers, while Paul, in his polite way, impressed me with his cool reserve.”

Before long, though, McCartney effectively broke the ice when he suggested that they play together.

“But shy [Paul] wasn’t, and the awkward silence was finally broken when he got out his guitar and began to play.”

Paul McCartney quickly impressed John Lennon with his talent

Though Lennon looked down on McCartney because he was younger, he couldn’t find fault with his talent on guitar.

“John was immediately impressed by what he heard and saw … Beyond his ability to tune his instrument, Paul knew the proper guitar configurations for all the banjo chords John had learned from his mum — along with many others of whose existence the Quarry Men had remained blissfully unaware,” Shotton wrote. “After effortlessly serenading us with Eddie Cochran’s ‘Twenty Flight Rock’— which we’d thought too difficult for our band even to attempt— Paul further ingratiated himself by writing out from memory the complete lyrics to some of John’s favorite rock & roll numbers.”

When McCartney left, Lennon suggested to Shotton that they invite him to join the band. 

A different band member asked McCartney to join the group

Though inviting McCartney to join the group was Lennon’s idea, he didn’t make any attempt to let him know. Shotton eventually extended the invitation.

“Another fortnight went by, and John still hadn’t bothered to contact our new acquaintance,” he wrote. “As it happened, I was the first to see Paul again, cycling through our neighborhood.”

Shotton said it was immediately apparent at their first rehearsal that McCartney and Lennon, though different in many ways, were alike in their love of music. This helped them become closer.

“Since each had already been devoting most of his free time to the guitar — sometimes even to the extent of strumming it in the loo — John and Paul naturally began practicing together at every opportunity,” he said. “In the process, their respective defenses quickly eroded, and the two did indeed become mates.”

They would go on to work together for years.