John Lennon's Last Words To Paul Were 'Think Of Me Every Now And Then, Old Friend'

In 1981 Paul McCartney flew to Monteserrat, where Beatles producer George Martin had installed a state-of-the-art studio, to begin work on his Tug Of War solo album. One song in this album is Get It, to which recording session he invited Carl Perkins to provide vocals. Carl loved the experience and the following morning he wrote My Old Friend for Paul in appreciation. In fact, he recounted to Paul that usually when he writes he needs a pen and a sheet of paper to record his thoughts on, but this time the words just stuck with him.

He then played the song to Paul. And Paul, upon hearing the song, left the room crying.

‘After I finished,’ he recalled, 'Paul was crying, tears were rolling down his cheeks, and Linda said, ‘Carl, thank you so much.’ I said, ‘Linda, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you both cry.’ She said, ‘But he’s crying, and he needed to. He hasn’t been able to really break down since that happened to John.’ And she put her arm around me and said, ‘But how did you know?’ I said, ‘Know what?’ She said, ‘There’s two people in the world that know what John Lennon said to Paul, the last thing he said to him. But now there’s three, and one of them’s you, you know it.’ I said, ‘Girl, you’re freaking me out! I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ She said that the last words that John Lennon said to Paul in the hallway of the Dakota building were, he patted him on the shoulder and said, ‘Think about me every now and then, old friend.’

And that, with minor alterations, was the chorus line of Perkins’ song, ‘McCartney really feels that Lennon sent me that song, he really does.'

Here’s the YouTube video with Paul and Carl together in 1993. Paul obviously tried to hold his emotions.

“If we never meet again this side of life, in a little while, over yonder, where there’s peace and quiet, my old friend, won’t you think about me every now and then?”

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