Paul McCartney says he was ‘hurting too much’ to keep The Beatles going after John Lennon left

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Paul McCartney admitted he was “hurting too much” to keep The Beatles going after John Lennon left the band in 1970.

The iconic English musician appeared on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” on Wednesday where he spoke about the group’s breakup, which occurred shortly after Lennon married Yoko Ono in 1969.

The 77-year-old shared it just wouldn’t have worked to maintain the fab four without the fellow star.

“You can’t just think of a smart idea like that at the time,” said McCartney, as reported by U.K.’s Daily Mail. “You’re hurting too much so it wasn’t going to happen.”

McCartney also revealed that The Beatles did not give member George Harrison his due credit as a songwriter.

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Paul McCartney admitted that he and John Lennon “were competitive” with each other and that his former Beatles bandmate only “once” praised one of his songs. John Lennon and Paul McCartney are seen in this December 1963 photo. (Getty)

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“It was easy to underestimate George because me and John had always written most of the stuff,” he explained. “But then he started to get interested – and boy did he bloom. He wrote some of the greatest songs ever.”

When Stern, 66, told McCartney he felt The Beatles were better versus The Rolling Stones, the star laughed and said, “You know, Howard, you know you’re going to persuade me to agree with that one.”

“I’ve always said it,” he continued. “But the thing is the Stones are a fantastic group. I go to see them every time they come out. They’re a great, great band.

"They’re so rooted in the blues and so when they’re writing stuff it’s to do with the blues. Whereas we had a little more influences. Keith [Richards] once said to me, ‘Man, you were lucky. You had four singers in your band.’ And he said, ‘We got one.’ So, there’s a lot of differences.”

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In this Monday, July 10, 2017 file photo, Sir Paul McCartney performs at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. (AP)

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But in the end, there was no contest.

“I love The Stones but I’m with you [Stern] – The Beatles were better,” said McCartney. “We still are [friends] and we admire each other.”

Lennon was murdered outside his New York City apartment in 1980 at age 40. Harrison passed away in 2001 at age 58 from cancer.