Before Allen Klein became a thorn in Paul McCartney’s side, the Beatle used him to question his manager, Brian Epstein. At the time, Klein managed The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles believed they had a better deal. McCartney said that he misunderstood the deal Klein had gotten the Stones, which put him at odds with Epstein.
Paul McCartney spoke to Beatles manager Brian Epstein about Allen Klein
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Epstein managed The Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967. He did a solid job with the band, but they began to wonder if a better deal was possible for them.
“With Brian, I remember talking about [Allen] Klein — being in a lift in Hilly House, and saying, ‘We just heard that The Rolling Stones were getting sixpence royalty per record’ or something like that, and we knew that we got four,” McCartney explained in the book All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words by Steven Gaines and Peter Brown. “We were bigger than them, and we didn’t realize that they can give you a very artificially high royalty but take [everything else off you], which they probably did to the Stones. We didn’t realize that.”
McCartney began to question Epstein about why he couldn’t get The Beatles a better deal. This did not do anything good for their relationship.
“That was one of the times that my ambitions sort of got the better of me,” McCartney said. “I was only trying to get us a better deal. But it ruined it a little bit there, I mean I’m sure not greatly, but he didn’t like me too much after that for a week or two, you know, ‘Bastard. After all I’ve done for him, asking for twopence more, and implying I’m not as good as Klein, so you know, it was like you can have them.’”
Paul McCartney had the most complicated relationship with Brian Epstein
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When asked, McCartney agreed that he was the most “demanding” of Epstein. He questioned his decisions and pushed him to do more for The Beatles.
“I always was,” McCartney said, adding, “I was inquisitive and ambitious. I realize now how ambitious I was.”
McCartney believed John Lennon was far closer to Epstein than he was. While Epstein said this was initially true, he grew to love each Beatle the same.
He later changed his opinion on Allen Klein
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McCartney initially thought Klein could get The Beatles a better deal. He dramatically reversed his opinion by the end of the decade. After Epstein’s death, Lennon moved to hire Klein as the band’s new manager. McCartney fought against this, wanting his soon-to-be father-in-law, Lee Eastman, in the position instead. When it became clear that his bandmates would not support Eastman, the idea of Klein began to haunt McCartney.
“To me, he was like a sort of demon that would always haunt my dreams,” McCartney said. “He got to me. Really, it was like I’d been dreaming of him as a dentist.”
McCartney remained firmly opposed to Klein and sued him and The Beatles after they split.
