Browse through old photos of The Beatles, and you’ll find dozens, if not hundreds, where they’re smoking cigarettes. The band’s concerts always smelled like urine, but the Fab Four’s clothes probably stank of Marlboros and Dunhills. Paul McCartney’s addiction didn’t last, though, as a near-death experience in 1973 led him to quit smoking, at least for a while. Other musicians joined him in giving up cigarettes in the decades since.

Paul McCartney was ‘in hell’ and quit smoking cigarettes after 1 of ‘the most frightening periods’ of his life

The Fab Four had their limousines swarmed by fans, played a show in Montreal amid Ringo Starr death threats, and barely escaped their one trip to the Philippines in 1966. Yet Paul said making the Wings record Band on the Run in Lagos, Nigeria, trumped them all.

It wasn’t just that his five-piece band had been whittled to a trio — Macca, Linda McCartney, and Denny Laine — after Denny Seiwell and Henry McCullough quit. There was also the horrific experience of being mugged on the street. That led to what Paul called one of the most frightening periods of his life — struggling to breathe, he fainted and collapsed outside the studio.

“It seemed stuffy in the studio, so I went outside for a breath of fresh air. If anything, the air was more foul outside than in,” Paul said, according to The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over Vol. 2 author Keith Badman (via The Paul McCartney Project). “It was then that I began to feel really terrible and had a pain across the right side of my chest, and I collapsed. I could not breathe, and so I collapsed and fainted. Linda thought I had died.

“The doctor seemed to treat it pretty lightly and said it could be bronchial because I had been smoking too much. But this was me in hell. I stayed in bed for a few days, thinking I was nearly dying. It was one of the most frightening periods in my life. The climate, the tensions of making a record, which had just got to succeed, and being in this totally uncivilized part of the world finally got to me.”

The eventful days and near-death experience in Lagos led Paul to put down the cigarettes for a while. He quit for good in the 1980s, according to the Daily Mail, though paparazzi spotted him puffing away in Jamaica in 2022.

Paul found it harder to stop smoking pot than cigarettes. He tried to smuggle his stash into Japan in 1980, and the authorities arrested him in an embarrassing and scary moment. Still, Macca eventually outgrew that habit, too.

Like McCartney, Ringo was also a heavy smoker while with The Beatles and beyond, consuming several packs a day. The drummer was also a heavy drinker before embracing sobriety. Now, he lives a healthy, exercise-heavy, pizza-free lifestyle. 

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Other famous musicians who gave up smoking

Just as The Beatles were musical trendsetters, Paul was one of the first notable musicians to stop smoking cigarettes. Others did the same.

Country music legend Willie Nelson started smoking and drinking at age six. He gave up cigarettes years later, calling it one of the best decisions of his life.

A few years after Paul survived his Lagos nightmare and quit smoking, his friend David Gilmour did the same. The Pink Floyd guitarist couldn’t stifle a cough on the song “Wish You Were Here,” and it made it onto the album. The embarrassed Gilmour gave up smoking because of it. 

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards always seemed to have a burning cigarette stapled to his lips for decades. He quit cold turkey in 2020, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. 

It took a 1973 near-death experience for Paul McCartney to quit smoking cigarettes for the first time. He had to go through hell during one of the most frightening moments of his life, but it helped him make a healthy life choice. Macca gave up the habit for good in the 1980s and later stopped smoking pot, too. In time, other famous smoking musicians followed in Paul’s footsteps and also quit.

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