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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame means something different to everyone, especially now that the annual voting cycle has commenced for its newest class<\/a>. Some artists care; others, like king Todd Rundgren<\/a>, ignore it completely. So perhaps a surprise: Paul McCartney fits in the first category. In a 2015 interview that has just been published for the first time in\u00a0Vanity Fair<\/a>, the cute Beatle admitted he holds lingering resentment toward former Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Jann Wenner for inducting John Lennon as a solo artist before him. (The Beatles, of course, already received the honor in 1988.) McCartney says Wenner asked him to induct Lennon for the 1994 ceremony, which was the first year Lennon was eligible. \u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, sure.\u2019 Then I put the phone down. I thought, Well, what about me? I\u2019m not inducted,\u201d he explained. \u201cNow John\u2019s going to go in. The thing about John Lennon and McCartney was we were always equal. But, of course, once John got murdered, he became the martyr \u2014 the Buddy Holly, the James Dean character \u2014 because of the atrocity. So a revisionism started to go on \u2026 so that naturally colored my thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n Macca points to both Wenner and Lennon\u2019s wife Yoko Ono as helping spread that narrative. \u201cYoko would be saying things like, \u2018Oh, Paul only booked the studio,\u2019\u201d he added. \u201cPeople have said the greatest things about me. But luckily, there is this thing called history, and there are these things called record books, so I can say, \u2018Well, no, I actually did more than that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n McCartney inquired about his own Rock Hall honors<\/a> the next time he spoke with Wenner, who promised him the award the following year. Wenner reneged on his word and McCartney was snubbed as a soloist until 1999. \u201cI bought the deal,\u201d Macca explained. \u201cFucking bastards. So none of these things endeared me to him. And it was always, \u2018It\u2019s not me.\u2019 Eventually I did creep in there and my daughter Stella wore a T-shirt that said, \u2018About fucking time.\u2019\u201d (It was a great look.<\/a>) Years later, he even campaigned to get his fellow Beatles brother, Ringo Starr, his moment of Rock Hall glory with the All-Starr Band, which was accomplished in 2015 following the induction of George Harrison in 2004.<\/p>\n \u201cSo as far as Jann is concerned \u2014 they did induct me. It was \u2018about fucking time\u2019 and all that,\u201d McCartney added. \u201cBut it was later and it wasn\u2019t when I was promised it. A verbal contract was not worth the paper it was written on. But I normally don\u2019t talk about this, because I\u2019m not very vindictive. I will hold a grudge, but I don\u2019t see the point of being vindictive.\u201d Technically, he could still get tapped a third time for his work in Wings. Or should we live and let that one die?<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n