Why do people still think Paul McCartney died in 1966?
In 1966, Paul McCartney died in a car crash, and has since been replaced by a lookalike in all his public appearances. Almost 70 years ago, this was a claim some people genuinely believed. Despite being a public, performing figure in his senior years, some Beatles fans are still holding onto this conspiracy theory. How did this theory start, and how did it even get so popular?
The rumor began in 1966, but gained traction at Drake University in 1969, when the student newspaper published an article titled, “Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?”. The claim was picked up by radio stations, and the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy went worldwide.
The most detailed version of the theory alleges that in fall 1966, potentially on September 11, McCartney had an argument with his bandmates and drove away. On the road, he got distracted by a meter maid, crashed, and died a gruesome death. To spare fans the grief, The Beatles, their management, and the British government all colluded to replace him with a lookalike, who they trained to perform and act like him. The replacement went by many names and personalities — Billy Shears, Bill Shepherd, and an orphan from Edinburgh named William Campbell.
In search of the truth, fans carefully analyzed songs and cover art to confirm the theory. The Beatles used backmasking in their music, and some alleged that a moment in their song “Revolution 9” sounded like “Turn me on, dead man” when played backwards. In promotional photos for the album “Sgt Pepper,” fans noticed McCartney’s badge read “ODP” — code for “Officially Pronounced Dead.” In reality, it said OPP, for Ontario Provincial Police.
Multiple members of the Beatles acknowledged the rumor. When the conspiracy emerged, their press team was getting calls “night and day” from all around the world asking if McCartney was dead. In another instance, his team said, “we get letters from all sorts of nuts but Paul is still very much with us.” The theory even impacted his real-life interactions with fans. In the band’s anthology, McCartney noted that “It was a bit weird meeting people after that, because they’d be looking a bit through me. And it was weird doing the ‘I really am him’ stuff.”
Despite the peculiarity of it all, the rumors led to a spike in their album sales in 1969. By the 90s, the theory had died down enough that McCartney began to poke fun at it, releasing his live album, “Paul Is Live” in 1993. In 2009, “Paul is Dead” made it onto Time’s list of most enduring conspiracy theories. In the end, a frenzied, fan-fueled delusion proved that nothing says rock n’ roll quite like a death conspiracy.
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