In one of the shittiest moves in rock history, Michael Jackson bought 50 percent of the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog back in 1985 and always refused to sell them to Paul McCartney. (McCartney and John Lennon owned the other 50 percent as the songwriters.)
The rumors started swirling a while back and especially after Jackson’s death that maybe he’d “do the right thing” and give McCartney the rights upon his death. Nope. No such luck.
McCartney has come out to say he’s not surprised though.
“Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will which was completely made up and something I didn’t believe for a second,” he declared.
“Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn’t leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report was true and therefore, the report that I’m devastated is also totally false, so don’t believe everything you read folks!
“In fact, though Michael and I drifted apart over the years, we never really fell out, and I have fond memories of our time together. At times like this, the press do tend to make things up, so occasionally, I feel the need to put the record straight.”
Sure, McCartney can say he isn’t devastated, but it’s still a pretty shitty thing to do.
This article appears in Jul 7-14, 2009.
