Share and Follow
For Beatles aficionados under 40, the tale of Paul McCartney’s notorious arrest and subsequent incarceration in Tokyo back in 1980 might be unfamiliar. However, the new documentary Man on the Run, now available on Prime Video, dives into the captivating details of the time when the legendary rock icon spent nine days behind bars for carrying marijuana in his luggage.
The documentary, helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville, known for works like 20 Feet From Stardom and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and executive produced by McCartney himself along with Caitrin Rogers, chronicles the period following the Beatles’ breakup in 1969. It highlights McCartney’s journey as he embarked on a solo career and established Wings with his wife, Linda McCartney. The narrative culminates in 1980, marking the beginning of a tour in Japan.
“Everyone warned us, ‘Don’t take any pot into Japan. It’s seven years of hard labor if you do.’ But we were in New York, and we had some pot,” McCartney recalls in a voiceover from the film, adding with a wry “Oops.”
On January 16, 1980, as Paul and Linda arrived at Tokyo International Airport, a customs officer discovered a bag of marijuana, roughly softball-sized, in their carry-on. This led to McCartney’s arrest on smuggling charges. Within 12 hours, their tour was scrapped, and McCartney found himself confined to a 4-by-8 cell in a Tokyo jail.
Reflecting on the incident in the documentary, McCartney admits, “There are moments when you think, ‘You’re an idiot.’ This was one of them. I was alone in a tiny cell, feeling like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. I didn’t sleep the first night, and by the third night, I had an excruciating headache. I was dreading the possibility of being there for seven years.”
McCartney was plagued by thoughts of his wife, Linda, and their four children, Heather, Mary, Stella, and James.
“We hadn’t been separated at all, since we’d been married,” McCartney says. “I had visions of her, and the kids, just growing up outside Tokyo.”
Thankfully, McCartney was released after just nine days in jail. Rather than being held for trial, McCartney was asked to leave Japan, which, as once can imagine, he was all too happy to do. Less than a week later, he got to work on recording his second solo album (without the Beatles, and without Wings), McCartney II. Though he made no formal announcement, the arrest saw the end of the Wings era.
“I used to imagine, the best possible thing I could imagine, would be sitting under my oak tree in my garden,” McCartney said of his time in jail. “That was absolutely the height of bliss. You don’t cherish all of those moments unless they are taken away from you. It was one of the point where I thought, ‘Wait a minute. If I ever get out of here, do I really want to be doing what I’m doing?’”
As the present-day McCartney reflected, “It was liberation for me. You don’t have to be that Paul McCartney fellow that we expect all the time.”