(CelebrityAccess) — John Eastman, a noted music attorney and the brother-in-law of Sir Paul McCartney, died on August 9th. He was 83.
McCartney announced his brother-in-law’s passing via social media, writing:
My dear brother-in-law, John Eastman, has passed away. Having known each other for over 50 years it is an extremely sad time for me, and our families. John was a great man. One of the nicest and smartest people I have had the good luck to have known in my life.”
Not only did he help me massively in my business dealings as my lawyer but as a friend he was hard to beat. His sense of humor always shone through in everything he did and his devotion to his family was supreme.
We had so many fun times together through the years, but when the time came to be serious, he was unbeatable. There is so much more that can be said of his incredible qualities, but words can hardly describe his passion for life and our affection for this amazing man.
He will be sorely missed but always held dear in the hearts of those of us who knew and loved him.
A cause of death was not disclosed, but The Independent reported that he died from pancreatic cancer.
Eastman was the brother of Paul’s late wife, Linda McCartney, who died of breast cancer in 1998. Eastman, along with his father Lee Eastman, served as McCartney’s attorneys as he navigated the Beatles breakup in 1970.
The Eastmans later took on the role of McCartney’s managers, assisting him as he launched a solo career and guiding his investments in music publishing.
“The music publishing I own is fabulous. Beautiful. I owe it all to Linda’s dad Lee Eastman and her brother John. Linda’s dad is a great business brain. He said originally, ‘If you are going to invest, do it in something you know. If you invest in building computers or something, you can lose a fortune. Wouldn’t you rather be in music? Stay in music.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d much rather do that.’ So he asked me what kind of music I liked. And the first name I said was Buddy Holly. Lee got on to the man who owned Buddy Holly’s stuff and bought that for me. So I was into publishing now,” McCartney told Playboy’s Joan Goodman in a 1984 interview.
Eastman is survived by his wife Jodie Eastman.
