Paul McCartney: John Lennon's Ghost Helps me Write Music

Paul McCartney has claimed that he talks to the spirit of his deceased former bandmate John Lennon.

The Beatles legend said that he still sought his late friend's advice when writing new music - almost 33 years after Lennon was gunned down on a New York street outside his apartment building.

"If I'm at a point where I go, 'I'm not sure about this', I'll throw it across the room to John," the 71-year-old singer and songwriter told Rolling Stone magazine.

"He'll say, 'You can't go there, man'. And I'll say, 'You're quite right. How about this?' 'Yeah, that's better'.

"We'll have a conversation. I don't want to lose that."

The Hey Jude hitmaker also revealed that he had finally ended his bitter feud with Lennon's wife Yoko Ono, who was often accused of instigating the Beatles' split.

He said: "I thought, 'If John loved her, there's got to be something. He's not stupid'. It's like, what are you going to do? Are you going to hold a grudge you never really had?

"George [Harrison] would say to me, 'You don't want stuff like that hanging around in your life'."

But while McCartney has mended fences with Ono, there is somebody he says he can never forgive - Lennon's murderer, Mark Chapman.

"I could pretty much forgive anyone else. But I don't see why I'd want to forgive him," he said. "This is a guy who did something so crazy and terminal. Why should I bless him with forgiveness?"