Paul McCartney shares thoughts on John Lennon and auto-tune

John Lennon and Paul McCartney at London Airport after a trip to America in 1968. Photo / Getty Images

Sir Paul McCartney thinks John Lennon would have been "all over" auto-tune.

The 79-year-old musician doesn't believe his late Beatles bandmate needed to "fix" his voice but would have enjoyed experimenting with the technology that smoothes out recorded vocals.

Speaking on new Apple TV+ docuseries "Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson", Paul said: "I'd say that if John Lennon had had an opportunity he would have been all over it.

"Not so much to fix your voice, but just to play with it."

And John's son Sean Lennon agreed because he felt the "Imagine" singer - who was shot dead in 1980 - was always looking for a way to "sound better", as well as being very interested in keeping up with the latest innovations in recording.

He said: "It's definitely true that my dad didn't like his voice alone, like a single voice. Part of it is why he found all those phase effects, because he was always trying to find a way to make his voice sound better to him.

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"He always was not just keeping up with the technology, but the Beatles and my dad, they were always on the cutting edge of what was happening.

"I think for sure he would have tried auto-tune."

Meanwhile, Paul recently admitted he still finds it "difficult" to think about John's death and doesn't think he'll ever "get over" his friend being the victim of such a "senseless" act.

He said: "It's difficult for me to think about. I rerun the scenario in my head. Very emotional. So much so that I can't really think about it.

"It kind of implodes. What can you think about that besides anger, sorrow?"

"Like any bereavement, the only way out is to remember how good it was with John. Because I can't get over the senseless act. I can't think about it. I'm sure it's some form of denial. But denial is the only way that I can deal with it. Having said that, of course I do think about it, and it's horrible.

"You do things to help yourself out of it. I did an interview with Sean his son. That was nice — to talk about how cool John was and fill in little gaps in his knowledge. So it's little things that I am able to do, but I know that none of them can get over the hill and make it okay."