The long-established buzz that bandmate beef caused The Beatles to break up was apparently nothing but a bunch of bunk.
And freshly exhumed, unused footage from the British rock royals’ 1970s film and album, “Let It Be” — released the same year the group disbanded — punctures prevailing rumors that the “She Loves You” luminaries were at each other’s throats in the days leading up to their earth-shattering split.
“These are not guys that dislike each other,” director Peter Jackson told “60 Minutes” of Paul McCartney, 79, Ringo Starr, 81, and the late John Lennon and George Harrison for the segment, which airs Sunday.
The New Zealand filmmaker, renown for his directorial panache in “Lord of The Rings,” resurrected and complied the nearly 60-hours worth of vaulted recordings to unveil the true story behind the unbreakable bond The Beatles shared, even during their darkest days, in forthcoming documentary series “Get Back.”
The production is set to debut during Thanksgiving weekend on Disney+.
“I was watching, I was waiting for it to get bad,” said Jackson, 60, admitting that he was prepared to see the “Here Comes the Sun” singers at intense odds when he first stumbled upon scrapped footage four years ago.
“I was waiting for the narrative that I’d believed over the years to start happening… the arguments… discontent,” he continued. “And, you know, it didn’t happen.”
Instead, the outtakes show the four musical powerhouses — accompanied by Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono, now 88, who’s been historically blamed for the band’s demise — collaborating on guitar breaks and melodies for hits like “The Two of Us,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Get Back” in perfect harmony.
Their peaceful coexistence notwithstanding, Jackson says the five-decade-old claims of conflict within the group have convinced its surviving members that the breakup was contentious.
“I’m talking to Ringo and Paul. And their memory was very miserable and unhappy and I’d say, ‘Look, whatever your memories are, whatever you think your memories are, this is the truth of it. And here, look…,’” the documentarian said he told the living legends.
And after watching the resurfaced footage, the icons quickly recalled the untroubled bliss of their brotherhood.
“[Paul and Ringo] started to realize… this is an incredibly amazing historical document of the Beatles at work. And four friends at work. And clearly, they’re four friends,” Jackson said.
Giles Martin, the son of the late Beatles producer Sir George Martin, lent the memories from his up-close and personal affiliation with the mega-group to Jackson’s docuseries. And he says their friendship served as their foundational rock as the men endured the pressures of completing their “Let It Be” masterpiece.
“This is the biggest band on the planet saying we’re going to do our first show in three years in three weeks’ time. We don’t know where it’s going to be. And we don’t know what songs we’re going to play,” said Martin, 52. “Paul and John kind of knew that they were growing apart… like a marriage that’s failing and they want to go back on their date nights again.”
And for Jackson, exploring this previously untouched territory of Beatles history has been a mind-blowing adventure.
“After 50 years, you’d have every right to believe that everything with The Beatles had been talked about… every film had been seen, every bit of music had been heard and there was no more surprises with The Beatles,” he said.
“And suddenly, bang, out of nowhere comes this incredible treasure trove of fly on the wall material 52 years later. It still blows my mind.”
