LONDON (Reuter) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney hates being called "Sir" and almost turned down the knighthood bestowed on him in January by Britain's Queen Elizabeth. McCartney said in an interview published on Wednesday that he thought fellow Beatle John Lennon, murdered in 1980, would have been embarrassed by a title and would have sent it back. McCartney, 55, was given the knighthood for his services to the British pop industry. But he said he refuses to use the title Sir Paul and does not use the headed notepaper with it that was bought for him by his wife Linda. "To me the problem was how much it would change my life, not whether it was a royalist gesture. I don't take it that seriously," he said. "It's a great honour but I'm intelligent enough to find it easy to be cynical about these things," he added. All four members of The Beatles were given MBE (Member of the British Empire) medals by the queen at the height of their fame in 1965. Lennon returned his in 1969 in protest at the Vietnam war. McCartney is to stage the world premiere in London next week of his classical music symphony "Standing Stone". It is his first solo classical music project and was commissioned to mark the centenary of his EMI record company.