Paul McCartney Takes a Shot at Joe Jackson

Paul McCartney has spoken out about the reputed overbearing nature of Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson, and feels it contributed to the late singer's problems. Speaking to Halifax radio station Q104 last Thursday, McCartney was asked why he overlooked Jackson's dad in an official statement, only sending his condolences to Michael's "Mother and rest of the family."

Insisting the snub was "not on purpose", the Beatles legend explained, "When I issued the statement I had a feeling things might be construed like that. The truth is I kind of know Katherine a bit better, I've met her a few times with Michael and with the family and she was a more personal friend than the dad. I haven't really met Joe, so that was why I did that."

"I don't know for sure about the physical abuse," McCartney added, "but I know he was on a TV program and the interviewer said, 'Did you ever beat Michael?' and Joe replied, 'I didn't beat him, I whupped him.' So I am pretty sure that went on, I don't want to be the judge on that kind of thing but I do think that contributed to some of the problems Michael might have had. I was very blessed because Michael never gave me a sense of that stuff, we just hung out and had fun."

As for earlier reports that Jackson was planning to leave McCartney the Beatles song catalog in his will, McCartney says it didn't happen. "I heard this rumor a couple of days ago about the songs, I don't think that is true," McCartney responded. "I got off that years ago. It was something for a while I was very keen on and you can see why, naturally. I thought it was a natural with Michael taking over that something would be happening there but when I realized it wasn't I thought, get off it. Those sort of things can eat you up so I thought get off it."

McCartney and Jackson's friendship splintered in 1985, after Jackson outbid McCartney and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono for the rights to the Beatles song catalog. There's no word yet on who will inherit them.

Reader Comments(1 of 3)

Add your comments

If you are posting a comment for the first time, please enter your name and email address in the fields above. Your name will be displayed with your comment. Your email address will never be displayed.

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Off-topic, promotional or otherwise inappropriateinappropriate comments will be removed.

When you enter your name and email address for the first time, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, as well as a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.