**Paul McCartney and John Lennon Reconnected Through LSD During Sgt. Pepper Sessions, New Book Reveals**
*Published: Sept. 26, 2025, 6:45 p.m. ET*
Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s relationship was pulled back together during the *Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band* sessions through their shared use of LSD, a new book reveals.
RadarOnline.com can exclusively report that music writer Ian Leslie, whose book *John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs* is published by Faber & Faber, explores how the drug became both a dividing line and a bridge between the two Beatles in 1967.
### John Lennon Accidentally Took LSD During a Recording Session
On March 21, 1967, Lennon, then 26, accidentally took acid during a recording session at Abbey Road Studios. Leslie describes the incident:
“John reached into a silver snuff box looking for an upper, but instead he ended up taking a tab of LSD. He suddenly stopped singing and told [Beatles producer] George Martin he wasn’t feeling well. Paul and George Harrison quickly realized what had happened and rushed to get him off the roof before he thought he could fly.”
That evening, McCartney, also 26, chose to take LSD alongside Lennon. Leslie explains:
“Paul decided this was the moment to ‘get with John.’ He wanted to be with him in his misery and fear, but also to reconnect with him on a deeper level. It was Paul reaching out.”
### LSD’s Impact on Lennon’s Personality
According to Leslie, this joint LSD trip led to an unusually intimate exchange between the two musicians.
“John and Paul would sometimes sit and stare into each other’s eyes until they dissolved into one another,” he notes. “It was a way of obliterating their sense of being separate individuals. Paul later admitted it was disturbing, because you ask yourself how you come back from it – and the answer is, you don’t.”
Leslie argues that drugs radically reshaped Lennon’s character during this period.
“People who knew John noticed a softening in him that coincided with LSD use,” he says. “He stopped drinking himself into rages, became more childlike, even started hugging friends. But it came at a cost – when he wasn’t working, he was tripping, leaving him vulnerable and unmoored.”
By contrast, McCartney became more focused.
“Paul’s drug of choice was cocaine, and he would stay up all night perfecting bass lines,” Leslie explains. “But he also recognized that John needed channeling. By taking LSD with him, Paul allowed John to play the role of psychedelic guide while ensuring the experience was directed into songwriting.”
### The Dynamic Reflected in “Getting Better”
This dynamic is most evident in the track “Getting Better.” Leslie reveals:
“The song began with Paul on a sunny day in Primrose Hill, thinking, ‘It’s getting better.’ But when John joined in, he poured his own life into the lyrics – his teenage anger, his abuse of women, his regrets. Into Paul’s optimistic frame, John injected heaviness. Together they created a song that captured John’s own journey of grudging self-realization.”
Leslie emphasizes the paradox at the heart of their partnership.
“John’s productivity was at its lowest on *Sgt. Pepper* – he initiated only three songs,” he notes. “Yet Paul coaxed more out of him than anyone else could. Nobody, not even John, believed more in John’s talents than Paul did.”
By choosing to join Lennon on his LSD trips, Leslie argues, McCartney was not only keeping the partnership alive but redefining its balance.
“It gave John the upper hand in one part of their relationship,” he says, “but it also tethered him to Paul and to the band. It was both dangerous and creative – and it helped them finish the most famous album of their career.”
*John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs* by Ian Leslie is available now.
https://radaronline.com/p/beatles-drugs-secret-paul-mccartney-john-lennon-lsd/
