Paul McCartney glad he repaired his friendship with John Lennon

London: Paul McCartney is thankful that he had time to repair his friendship with Beatles bandmate John Lennon before his death.

The bandmates had a fallout following a bitter fight but Lennon, who was shot to death at the age of 40 on December 8, 1980, and McCartney reconnected later, the singer said on the Saturday episode of The Jonathan Ross Show.

"The story about the break-up, it's true but it's not the main bit, the main bit was the affection," McCartney, 72, recalled ahead of Lennon's death anniversary today.

"I'm so glad because it would have been the worst thing in the world to have this great relationship that then soured and he gets killed, so there was some solace in the fact that we got back together. We were good friends," McCartney shared.

Recalling the moment when McCartney heard the news of Lennon's death, the singer said it was difficult to accept.

"I just for days couldn't think that he was gone. It was just a huge shock. I was at home and I got a phone call. It was early in the morning... It was just so horrific, you couldn't take it in and I couldn't take it in. For me, it was just so sad that I wasn't going to see him again and we weren't going to hang."

Mark David Chapman, who shot Lennon outside his building in New York, remains in jail after pleading guilty to second degree murder in 1981. "The phrase kept coming in my head 'The jerk of all jerks'. It was just like, 'This is just a jerk. This is not even a guy politically motivated, it's just some total random thing', " McCartney said.