PAUL RECALLS UNUSUALLY TENDER ENCOUNTER WITH JOHN A FEW YEARS AFTER THE BAND BROKE UP

Paul has recalled an unusually tender encounter with late former Beatles bandmate John Lennon a few years after the band split.

The songwriting duo had grown up together listening to the same music and following the same fashion trends over the years – and their relationship was "irreplaceable", Paul says.

Remembering their meeting following the break-up, Paul tells Rolling Stone: "He hugged me. It was great, because we didn't normally do that. He said, 'It's good to touch.' I always remembered that – it's good to touch."

Paul continues: "John and me, we were kids growing up together, in the same environment with the same influences. He knows the records I know, I know the records he knows.

"You're writing your first little innocent songs together. Then you're writing something that gets recorded.

"Each year goes by, and you get the cooler clothes. Then you write the cooler song to go with the cooler clothes. We were on the same escalator – on the same step of the escalator, all the way.

"It's irreplaceable – that time, friendship and bonding."