The Beatles ‘were offered $3,000 to reunite on Saturday Night Live’ – but Paul McCartney says it’s ‘not true’

The Beatles were offered a sum of $3,000 to reunite on an episode of Saturday Night Live. 

Show producer Lorne Michaels was serious in his offer to Paul McCartney and John Lennon after he was told the pair were together in New York, just a block away. The pair had been  at the Dakota apartments, with McCartney arriving at Lennon’s apartment unexpectedly with his guitar. Michaels’ offer was serious, as was the sum of money, which may seem relatively low at the time considering later lucrative offers to the Fab Four for reunion shows.

The band were allegedly offered $50 million but turned it down as the opening act would have been, according to drummer Ringo Starr, a man fighting a shark. But a very real offer from Michaels was considered by McCartney and Lennon, who ultimately decided to turn down the offer. In an address to camera, Michaels presented a cheque and said “there’s no problem” if the pair wanted to perform together, live on the show.

He said: “In my book, The Beatles are the best thing that ever happened to music. It goes even deeper than that — you’re not just a musical group, you’re a part of us. We grew up with you. Now, we’ve heard and read a lot about personality and legal conflicts that might prevent you guys from reuniting.

“That’s something which is none of my business. That’s a personal problem. You guys will have to handle that. But it’s also been said that no one has yet to come up with enough money to satisfy you. Well, if it’s money you want, there’s no problem here. The National Broadcasting Company has authorised me to offer you this cheque to be on our show. A certified cheque for $3,000.

“‘She Loves You,’ yeah, yeah, yeah – that’s $1,000 right there. You know the words. It’ll be easy. Like I said, this is made out to ‘The Beatles.’ You divide it any way you want. If you want to give Ringo [Starr] less, that’s up to you. I’d rather not get involved.”

McCartney later confirmed the story and said he honestly considered the offer as they were just a short walk away. He said: “John said, ‘We should go down, just you and me. There’s only two of us so we’ll take half the money.’ And for a second. But It would have been work, and we were having a night off, so we elected not to go. It was a nice idea – we nearly did it.”

But later discussions from McCartney, who spoke on an episode of Adam Buxton’s podcast about the incident, suggest it was not entirely true. He added: “As with all of these stories, it’s kind of true, but it’s not. I did visit John and Lorne didn’t actually come on the TV, Lorne was on the TV the week before, and John told me about it.

“He explained the thing to me, and John said: ‘We should go down there now, it’s live!’ and for five minutes we were like ‘Yeah, lets’ go down there, it’d be great, what a hoot!’ and then we went ‘No, let’s not’ and then we didn’t. So yeah, it’s kind of true but facts have been mangled to protect the innocent.”