The urban legend “Paul is Dead” is still a topic talked about around the globe. Allegedly, it states that Paul died on 9 November 1966, in a car crash and was replaced by a look-alike. The rumor spread like wildfire and it is still one of the weirdest conspiracy theories to exist to date.
It’s kind of weird that people still believe this rumor as he is still active in his music-making profession. This all started with the Beatles’ White Album. When a caller told Russ Gibb, a DJ hosting his show on WKNR to spin the ‘number nine, number nine’s ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ intro backward. While on air, he tried it and heard the words, “Turn me on, dead man,” and “I buried Paul”.
While it was one of the weirdest events in history. Mary, Paul’s daughter also addressed something about it. The conspiracy theory of the Abbey Road album cover. The theory states that Paul’s white Volkswagen has a number plate with the number ’28IF’ which suggests Paul would have been 28 if he had survived the car crash. Also, the album cover has Paul walking barefoot.
Further elaboration,
Suggests, the album cover is a funeral procession. According to Fox 5, George is the gravedigger, Paul is the corpse, Ringo is the congregation and John is the priest. In an interview with Mary McCartney, she revealed,
“Dad’s like, ‘It was a sunny day.’ He had sandals on, and he just flipped off his sandals when they walked across because it was hot. But then, John Lennon’s wearing a white suit. Think they were like, ‘Oh, this means Paul is dead.’ And then in the background, apparently, there’s like the number plate that sort of almost reads like ‘271f,’ like if he was still alive, and people read all these things into it, but it was just reading into it.”
Regarding that matter, when she also revealed how people would ask her if he is alive or not. Mary said, “That happened in a shoe shop once in Long Island. It was like, ‘Oh, but you’re dead,’ and he was like, ‘No,’ and they were like, ‘No, but we saw the whole thing, That was my earliest memory of like, ‘What’s going on here? Why are they saying that?’ Then, it sort of opened up.”
Even Paul himself became paranoid at one point. In an interview for his website, Paulmccartney.com he addressed people would often call him to check if he was dead or alive. He said,
“I know all the rumors… because I was being asked about them! There would literally be someone ringing up to ask, ‘Are you dead?’ I said, ‘Well, no. I’m answering this phone call!’ And the reply would be, ‘Well, I can’t be sure it’s you. So, then you actually do get a bit paranoid about yourself. And you think, ‘How am I going to prove to them or to anyone that this is me?!’ I figured, in time, this look-a-like will be writing some pretty decent songs, and if it wasn’t me, how had I trained him to write songs?”
There is very less to say anything about it because most people didn’t believe the rumor. But our heart goes out to Mary as she had to go through such an event while growing up. “Paul is Dead” is something totally made up, and while the rumors surfaced, everyone tried to push facts and clues to make it sound legitimate.
The legend lives on and his daughter Mary recently directed a documentary “If These Walls Could Sing”. It dropped on December 16 on Disney+.
Be sure to uncover the secrets revolving around London’s famous Abbey Road Studios.
