Paul McCartney Recalls Smoking Pot With Bob Dylan In 1964

Paul McCartney Recalls Smoking Pot With Bob Dylan In 1964 | I Love Classic Rock Videos

Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan - Youtube

Paul McCartney remembers the time when the legendary Bob Dylan introduced marijuana to the Beatles in 1964, with Ringo Starr apparently being the first one to try it.

He’s heard about Dylan not being happy being known as “the guy who turned the Beatles on,” but McCartney says their experience at New York’s Delmonico Hotel being a positive one.

On the Adam Buxton Podcast, where he also hailed Elvis Presley as the second-coolest he’s ever met, McCartney shared: “I remember it pretty well. We were staying in that hotel, and I think we were on tour. So we were all together in the hotel suite; we were having a drink, and then Bob arrived. We said ‘hi,’ and he vanished into a back room, one of the rooms off the suite. So we just carried on … but Ringo went back to see him.”

McCartney said Starr came back a few moments later “looking a little bit dazed and confused. We said, ‘What’s up?’ He said, ‘Oh, Bob’s smoking pot back there.’ We’d never had it. So we said, ‘What’s it like?’ Ringo said, ‘Well, the ceiling feels like it’s coming down a bit.’ We go, ‘Whoa!’ And we all just dashed in the back room to partake of the evil substance. That was quite an evening. It was crazy. It was great fun.”

The former Beatles bassist, who had stopped smoking the substance since 2015, continued: “I’m not sure Bob is keen on being labeled as the guy who turned the Beatles on. I’ve heard that he’s sort of trying to play it down a bit — but whatever, that’s the truth. We met him on other occasions under those kind of circumstances, but it was very nice.”

McCartney concluded that he had been hanging with the musician a few times in, saying, “We had some good times together. He’s a great bloke.”