According to Yahoo!, Paul McCartney recently said that after his band The Beatles broke up in the 1970s, he turned to alcohol to cope with his feelings of loss. In fact, he reports that he began to drink heavily during the last years that the band was together, a fact he blames for what The Fix calls a “creative dry spell.”

The Band Breaks Up

Said McCartney: “The Beatles, towards the end, was very constricting. You were in a corporate world suddenly. It’s not what you get into music for…and it got very heavy… So I think I was just trying to escape in my own mind.”

Though the band has often been accused of referencing drug use and abuse in their songs (take “Yellow Submarine,” for example) McCartney says that he and John Lennon usually worked on song lyrics together in the middle of the day when both of them were sober and focused. His big problem, he says, was drinking in the studio.

Said McCartney: “I’d be getting like ‘Heeyyyy, nice and fuzzy’ and it’s not a good thing to write.”

Moving On

It wasn’t a slump that McCartney stayed in forever. He figured out how to work through things and eventually stopped drinking. The Guinness Book of World Records named him “The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time” for good reason: music sales that are through the roof and that no one has yet to surpass.

McCartney also reports that he was an avid marijuana user for years, a habit that he gave up long after he quit drinking. He told Rolling Stone that he abandoned the drug for his young daughter. It was a development in his life that came as late as last year. Now 70 years old, McCartney was 69 at the time.

The Lesson: It’s Never Too Late

McCartney managed to put drugs and alcohol behind him at a late date, and so can you. Nothing is impossible, especially if you have the support of a well-rounded drug and alcohol addiction treatment program behind you and ongoing treatment to ensure that you are never without what you need to remain sober. Is freedom from drugs and alcohol something that you want for your life? If so, we’re here to help you get it. Contact us today to find out how we can help you move one step closer to sobriety.