Very common, it became one of those urban myths in the UK along with Cliff Richard and the colostomy bag myth when it was rumoured to be one of the reasons that he never married. Lots of my friends back then suspected that the bare footed Paul McCartney on the Abbey Road album sleeve indicated that he had 'passed on.' John Lennon and Yoko Ono discussed it on some footage during one of the Peace bed-ins with puzzlement and some amusement, what a twist of fate for John.