It’s something that has haunted die-hard fans of The Beatles for decades: Paul McCartney’s calm reaction following John Lennon’s shocking murder at the age of 40. However, the late rocker’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, says there’s more to the moment than people realized.
In the new documentary Man on the Run, which hit theaters Thursday, February 19, Sean, 40, opens up about why Paul’s brief comment to reporters made perfect sense to him.
In the hours after Lennon was shot outside his New York City apartment on December 8, 1980, Paul quietly told reporters when approached for comment outside a London recording studio, “[It’s a] drag, isn’t it?” The remark was often seen as cold, but Sean explains in the documentary — as reported by People — that he saw things differently.
“I always notice the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice,” said Sean. “Really felt like someone who was unable to process what was going on.”
“He just seemed almost robotic, which I think some people took possibly as coldness, but I never took it as that,” he continued, “‘cause I understood even then what it was like when something that terrible happens.”
The documentary also features Paul’s daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, speaking about her father’s true reaction at home.
“I remember that moment. I remember the phone ringing. I remember some, the biggest reaction I’d ever seen and him leaving the kitchen and going outside,” she recalls, per the outlet. “That was heartbreaking, like truly heartbreaking.”
Paul, 83, previously admitted in a 1981 interview that he was “probably more shattered than most people,” telling interviewers he was “not very good at public grief.”
Man on the Run explores McCartney’s life after The Beatles split, featuring rare footage and new interviews with his family and bandmates.