Who turned McCartney into a veggie? Linda or Jane?
Date: 24-Sep-01
Country: UK
Alistair Taylor, author of "The Secret History," due to be published next week, said vegetarian crusader Linda's claim she turned Paul into a vegetarian was a myth.
"It's absolute rubbish that Linda was the one who introduced Paul to vegetarianism," Taylor was quoted as saying in Britain's Observer newspaper.
Taylor, who was assistant to Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, said Asher and McCartney discovered a meat-free diet during a trip to India in 1967.
According to the official story Linda, who died of cancer in 1998, and Paul became vegetarians in the early Seventies after seeing lambs gamboling outside their southern English farmhouse as their Sunday roast sizzled in the oven.
Linda went on to publish vegetarian cookery books and set up a multi-million pound meatfree oven-ready meal business.
Linda might have used it as a ploy to rehabilitate her public reputation, Taylor told the Observer.
"Linda was never accepted by the group's fans," he said. "The hatred she inspired was intense and would certainly have made it difficult for her to start any business under her own name.
"It's amazing how Linda has been beatified since then and her campaigns for animal rights have certainly something to do with it."
But Geoff Baker, longtime friend and spokesman of Paul McCartney, was quoted in the newspaper as saying there was "no way" Linda's conversion of Paul was just spin.
"It's true that Paul and Jane discovered vegetarianism together during their trip to an ashram (retreat) in India in 1967," Baker said. "But it wasn't until he was together with Linda that he developed the powerful anti-meat convictions he still holds today."