Sir Paul McCartney has revealed how his wife Linda "saved" him when he stood on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The Beatles star described how the band's implosion turned him to drugs and alcohol in a new biography entitled Man On the Run.
He resorted to drugs and alcohol when he sought refuge at his remote property in Kintyre, Scotland. This quickly followed the birth of his daughter Mary in 1969, The Sunday Times reported.
"It was Linda who saved me and it was all done in a sort of domestic setting," McCartney said in a series of interviews with Tom Doyle, the music journalist and author.
Lennon announced his plan to leave the group just weeks earlier but had been persuaded not to make his decision public because the Abbey Road album was due to be released.
According to the biography, McCartney spent nights wide awake, shaking with anxiety. He used alcohol and marijuana during the day to cope, Doyle writes.
"For the first time in his life, he felt utterly worthless," Doyle said. "This was an identity crisis in extremis ... when he did get out of bed, he would reach straight for the whisky, and, by three in the afternoon, was usually out of it."
The author describes how Linda felt the situation was "frightening beyond belief", considering they had only been married for seven months.
Sir Paul eventually drew back from depression with help from his wife. He moved from High Park Farm back to his home in St John's Wood, northwest London, in January 1970, where he continued to live a hippy lifestyle before announcing he would leave the Beatles in April that year.
The biography focuses on Sir Paul's life during the 1970s and covers the disintegration of the Beatles and John Lennon's murder. It will be published on Thursday.
