Rumours that Paul McCartney died on 9 November 1966 in a car crash and was secretly replaced by a lookalike have persisted for 50 years. Is Paul really still around? Or has he been replaced by Billy Shears?
Yes, Paul is dead
Paul McCartney has been replaced with a lookalike in order to maintain The Beatles' success.
Who is Billy Shears?
We can point exactly to who replaced Paul McCartney - Billy Shears.
Paul McCartney died in a tragic car accident, and, to spare the public from grief, the remaining Beatles replaced him with the winner of a McCartney look-alike-winner, in order to cover up the musician's death.
Affected by grief and guilt, the remaining Beatles left multiple cryptic clues in their music and album artwork to hint at the truth of what had happened.
The Beatles did metaphorically die that day - it was the day John Lennon met Yoko Ono
The Beatles died on November 6, 1966
Yoko Ono caused the Beatles' death by stealing Lennon away from the band. Although the 'Paul is dead' idea remains a conspiracy theory, the Beatles metaphorically died in November 1966 when Lennon met Ono, and their tight relationship would draw Lennon away from the group.