Paul McCartney says he was lied to about Rock & Roll Hall of Fame solo induction

Paul McCartney was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1999, but it turns out he was expecting it to happen a lot earlier.

Vanity Fair just published a 2015 interview with McCartney that was conducted for a biography about Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and in it McCartney reveals Wenner, who co-founded the Rock Hall, went back on a promise regarding his solo induction.

McCartney explained that when John Lennon was inducted into the Rock Hall as a solo artist in 1994, Wenner asked him to handle the induction, and while he agreed, it got him thinking about himself. 

“Then I put the phone down. I thought, Well, what about me? I’m not inducted. Now John’s going to go in,” McCartney said. “The thing about John Lennon and McCartney was we were always equal. But, of course, once John got murdered, he became the martyr—the Buddy Holly, the James Dean character—because of the atrocity.”

McCartney said he eventually called Wenner and said, “Well, wait a minute. What about me? Maybe I’ll do John, and then maybe I should go in.”

McCartney said Wenner told him they couldn’t do that, with McCartney noting, “In all my dealings with him, it’s never up to Jann. It’s up to these other people down the corridor somewhere. He happens to have 'owner-editor' on his door, but they’re responsible for things?”

McCartney says Wenner eventually told him his solo induction would happen the next year.

“I said, ‘Okay.’ And I bought the deal,” McCartney said. “Next year came around … Crickets.”

McCartney noted, “Eventually I did creep in there, and my daughter Stella wore a T-shirt [that said] ‘About f***** time.”

According to the article, Wenner claimed to not remember making the deal with McCartney.

Both McCartney and Lennon were inducted as members of The Beatles in 1988.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.