Aurora Starchild
Paul McCartney’s daughter, Mary McCartney, has had quite the life. The 53-year-old documentary producer, photographer, author, and mother of four is not just the daughter of a celebrity — she’s been told her whole life that her father is dead. Mary addressed the ongoing conspiracy that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966 and assured the public that no, he’s very much alive, thank you!
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Mary McCartney Grew Up Being Told Her Very Alive Father Paul McCartney Is Dead
“It is the Abbey Road album cover, which is interesting,” Mary McCartney explained to Good Day New York on Fox 5. She’d been asked about what it’s been like to grow up with the bizarre tale of her father’s supposed death.
The rumor that Paul McCartney died in a car accident first started circulating in November of 1966. Abbey Road was released on September 26, 1969, and the album cover was somehow interpreted as an affirmation that Paul was indeed dead.
The Rumors Cemented With the Release of Abbey Road — 3 Years After Paul’s Alleged Death
On the cover of Abbey Road, the four bandmates were photographed processing across a street with a Volkswagen Beetle in the background. The license plate read “LMW 28IF.” This was somehow interpreted as a sign that Paul McCartney would be 28 if he hadn’t died in that mysterious car accident three years ago.
Truthfully, he would have been 27 at the time the album was released — but it doesn’t matter. People want to believe what they want to believe. John Lennon was supposedly dressed like a priest because he wore white; Ringo Starr was the congregation; Paul McCartney was dead because he had no shoes; and George Harrison was the gravedigger.
“My dad’s like, it was a sunny day, he had sandals on, and he just flipped off his sandals when they walked across because it was hot,” Mary explained. “But then, John Lennon’s wearing a white suit. Then they [the public] were like ‘this means that Paul is dead.’ And then in the background, apparently there’s like the number plate that says ‘27IF’… like ‘IF he was still alive.’ People read all these things into it but… obviously…”
“I think there was just this weird conspiracy like, somebody else had replaced him,” Mary said. “You know, that’s the bizarre world [that I’ve grown up in].”
Mary McCartney Has Been Living Alongside Her Allegedly Deceased Father Her Whole Life
Mary McCartney recalled that she and her father had been approached in a Long Island shoe shop by a stranger who was convinced Paul was deceased.
“He was like, ‘Oh, but your dead.’ And he was like, ‘No.’ And [the stranger] was like, ‘No, but we saw the whole thing.’ That was my earliest memory of like, ‘What’s going on here? Why are they saying that?’”
The conspiracy, however confusing it may be, may have some actual roots. According to Beatle.net, Paul McCartney himself once admitted that the hoax was planted deliberately for PR purposes. However, the website comes with a disclaimer that the article was originally written in April of 2004 and that its author, Bruce Spizer, is known for writing April Fools Day jokes. You can find the article here.
Spizer says McCartney once said that their manager, Brian Epstein, came up with the car accident idea because the Beatles wanted to write songs about topics apart from love, and he didn’t think they’d sell. So, allegedly, they’d fabricate a story about one of the band members dying in a car accident and plant clues along the way.
It’s probably not worth quoting because it seems like the whole thing is made up, but it’s worth mentioning for journalistic purposes.
Paul McCartney Is Available to Talk About Himself for Those Who Are Interested
However, Paul McCartney (assuming he’s the real Paul McCartney) once addressed the conspiracy while speaking with Rolling Stone.
Paul recalled that it was a hot day in London, and he’d shown up with sandals. He’d taken off his shoes.
“You know, so what? Barefoot, nice warm day, I didn’t feel like wearing shoes,” said McCartney. “So, I went around to the photo session and showed me bare feet. Of course, when that comes out and people start looking at it, they say, ‘Why has he got no shoes on? He’s never done that before.’ OK, you’ve never seen me do it before, but, in actual fact, it’s just me with my shoes off. Turns out to be some old Mafia sign of death or something.”
After the Abbey Road cover, other rumors started circulating. All of them, allegedly, lent weight to the idea that Paul was dead. The Beatle recalled one of them, which was that John Lennon says “I buried Paul” at the end of “Strawberry Fields.”
“That wasn’t ‘I buried Paul’ at all, that was John saying, ‘cranberry sauce,’” McCartney said. “It was the end of ‘Strawberry Fields.’ That’s John’s humor. John would say something totally out of synch, like ‘cranberry sauce.’ If you don’t realize that John’s apt to say, ‘cranberry sauce’ when he feels like it, then you start to hear a funny little word there, and you think ‘Aha!’”
McCartney Once Told Rolling Stone That The Death Rumors Were “The Best Publicity We’ve Ever Had”
Paul McCartney also revealed what he really thought of all the shenanigans. While the Beatles.net story may not be true, the real Beatle had a similar thought process.
“Someone from the office rang me up and said, ‘Look, Paul, you’re dead,’” said McCartney. “And I said, ‘Oh, I don’t agree with that.’ And they said, ‘Look, what are you going to do about it? It’s a big thing breaking in America. You’re dead.’ And so, I said leave it, just let them say it. It’ll probably be the best publicity we’ve ever had, and I won’t have to do a thing except stay alive. So, I managed to stay alive through it.”
So, there you have it. Paul McCartney was fully aware that people, especially Americans, believed he was dead. According to the rumors, he’d “blew his mind out in a car” on Tuesday, November 9, 1966, and was “Officially Pronounced Dead” the next morning. Further “proof” of this was the fact that McCartney was wearing an “O.P.D.” patch on the Sgt. Pepper album sleeve, released in 1967. And ever since then, he’s had a very convincing body double.
Perhaps not convincing enough.
“A couple of people came up and said, ‘Can I photograph you to prove you’re not dead?’” McCartney told Rolling Stone. “Coincidentally, around about that time, I was playing down a lot of the old Beatle image and getting a bit more to what I felt was me, letting me beard grow and not being so hung up on keeping fresh and clean. I looked different, more laid back, and so I had people coming up saying ‘You’re not him!’ And I was beginning to think, ‘I am, you know, but I know what you mean. I don’t look like him, but believe me.’”
