SIR MACCA: MY NEW ALBUM IS FOR LINDA
Fresh blow for estranged wife Heather
By Martin Fricker

SIR Paul McCartney has dedicated his new album to the memory of first wife Linda and says it "contains her spirit".

The 64-year-old former Beatle yesterday told how the classical CD Ecce Cor Meum also reflected his own heartache over Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998.

He said he stopped work on it for a year because he was grief-stricken.

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Macca added: "I started the album when Linda was alive so it has a lot of my feelings for her in it.

"When she died, it stalled me. I gradually got back into it.

"I just couldn't do anything really. I was just grieving. I gradually got back into it, I just sort of wrote my sadness out. The interlude in the middle is a particularly sad melody and is what got me going again.

"Her spirit is very much in this. It would have been her birthday yesterday, so it's very appropriate."

The words will be a new blow to second wife Heather, pictured right, whom Sir Paul is divorcing.

He refused to discuss her at the launch of the CD in London.

Asked how he was coping with the split, he replied: "I'm doing fine thank you. It's OK.

"I'm enjoying music. It's something I love to do. It's something that sustains me."

He said the lyrics of Ecce Cor Meum, which translates to Behold My Heart, were inspired by what he believes is important in life.

Sir Paul added: "I just wrote down a whole load of things that interest me about truth, about love, about honesty and about kindness.

"I'm very proud of the album. I do like it."

Sir Paul, who recorded the CD at the Beatles' old Abbey Road studios in London, said: "It's always nice to work there for me because it brings back lots of memories.

"I love what I do. I love writing music."

martin.fricker@mirror.co.uk