Beatle McCartney Details Drug Use

Related Stories Fathers Less Likely Than Mothers To Talk With Kids About Drugs   Olympic Contenders Notified of Potential Drug Violations   Music Industry Addresses Drug Culture   Russia Liberalizes Drug Policy

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney said he tried heroin once and used cocaine for a year, the BBC reported June 2.

About trying heroin, McCartney said, "I didn't realize I'd taken it. I was just handed something and smoked it. It didn't do anything for me."

Although he used cocaine "for about a year," McCartney said he was "never completely crazy" about the drug.

McCartney said drugs "informed" numerous Beatle songs. For instance, he said "Got To Get You Into My Life" was "about pot -- although everyone missed it at the time," and Day Tripper was "about acid."

But McCartney said writing songs was more important to him than getting high on drugs. "Just about everyone was doing them in one form or another. We were no different," he said. "But the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time."