Lost Interview With John Lennon Released 30 Years After His Death

By PopEater / Wire Services Posted Dec 8th 2010 07:10AM

John Lennon on the cover of the Rolling Stone

Three days before he was gunned down, John Lennon complained about his critics -- saying they were just interested in "dead heroes" -- and talked optimistically about his family and future, musing that he had "plenty of time" to accomplish some of his life goals.

Lennon's final interview was released to The Associated Press by Rolling Stone on Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the musician's death. The issue using the full interview will be on magazine stands on Friday. While brief excerpts of Jonathan Cott's interview with Lennon were released for a 1980 Rolling Stone cover story days after Lennon's death, this is the first time the entire interview has been published.

"His words are totally joyous and vibrant and hopeful and subversive and fearless," said Cott in an interview on Tuesday. "He didn't mince words."

Lennon saves some of his harshest words for critics who were perennially disappointed with Lennon's path, in both music and in his life, after leaving the Beatles.

"These critics with the illusions they've created about artists -- it's like idol worship," he said. "They only like people when they're on their way up ... I cannot be on the way up again.

"What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interesting in being a dead (expletive) hero. .. So forget 'em, forget 'em."

He also predicted that Bruce Springsteen, then hailed as rock's bright future, would endure the same critical barbs: "And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he's no longer God. ... They'll turn on him, and I hope he survives it."

But Lennon also talked about trying to be a good father to his youngest son Sean, learning how to relate to a child (he admitted he wasn't good at play) and spoke of his strong bond with wife Yoko Ono: "I've selected to work with ... only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. ... That ain't bad picking."

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At 40, he was also reflective of what he had accomplished so far in life and exploring life's themes, and remained committed to his goal of peace and love on earth.

"I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can ... But I still believe in peace, love and understanding."

<< Who Told You About John Lennon's Death? Check out the various news reports from that horrible night in New York City. Cronkite, Koppel, Rivera, Chung and Kurtis included.

Cott interviewed Lennon at his apartment and at his record studio. The interview was originally planned for a cover story for Lennon and Ono's upcoming album 'Double Fantasy,' but in the rush to put out a story after Lennon was shot to death by Mark David Chapman, only snippets were used.

Cott said he never went back to the three hours worth of tapes until a few months ago when he was cleaning out his closet.

"On a strip of magnetic tape, it was sort of a miracle that first of all, the tape had not degraded after 30 years," he said. "All of this sudden, this guy's voice, totally alive ... just made me feel so inspired that I felt that I should really transcribe the whole thing."

Cott said he was struck by how much he was thinking about his life and mortality.

"There were a lot of strange considerations of where he was and what he felt like sort of in the middle of his journey," Cott said. "I think it was like a mid-life meditation, I was struck by that."

The magazine also included an essay by Ono recalling her final days with her husband.

Ono released a statement Tuesday night in tribute to Lennon.

"On this tragic anniversary please join me in remembering John with deep love and respect," Ono said. "In his short lived life of 40 years, he has given so much to the world. The world was lucky to have known him. We still learn so much from him today. John, I love you!"

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Comments

(41)

Wednesday 08 December

By ruthless

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When you have a moment, sit down and watch A Hard Day's Night and Help!again. An absolutely wonderful time in history.

By trio

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Overrated douche. You know what they say about the Beatles. Two down, two to go. Not sure how a druggie became such a hero.

By Joe

Why don't you go f*** yourself. You'd need 5 promotions to get to be an a**hole

By 203ma937a

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Sorry folks to throw some truth in with all of the her worship, but he was a hypocrite. He wrote about imaging having no possessions, yet craved the fancy trappings of stardom, and lived in luxury. He talked about giving peace a chance, yet could be very angry towards those who didn't agree with him. He spent most of his adult years stoned on drugs, and his final albums were less than stellar. It's amazing how people put him up on a pedestal, yet if you were an adult during those years, you saw him for what he really was - a hypocritical phony.

Thursday 09 December

By lex keim

Lennon always made clear he was no hero, and was not to be "worshipped". He was the first to admit the mistakes of his life and spoke of himself as a work in progress. He was not perfect, which was one of his main points, you don't have to be perfect to care about the world around you. He was inspired in his later years to do better, which is all he attempted to inspire anyone else to do.

By David Berman

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The Beatles helped usher in the drug culture. I certainly think it is horrible that Lennon was murdered however I don't think he or his fellow drug culture, liberal buddies should be lifted up as hero's.

By Joan

Spoken like a true closed-minded wingnut...........

Ohhh, the smell of ignorance!!!!!

By What?

Unfortunately, there were never any drugs used by musicians before the Beatles came along. Your pinhead analysis of the drug craze being blamed on them is just plain stupid. There were drugs before the Beatles and there will be after. That is like blaming Jefferson for the slave trade.

++++++ === Idiot children of idiots

By david Berman

Hey stupid. I said "helped to usher in the drug culture" I did not say they alone did. Learn how to read.

By Ed

A true humanitarion, part of the best song writing duo ever. I don't care for Yoko however, he loved her and thats all that mattered. RIP my friend

By Jayde

Spoken like a true closed minded wingnut.

Ohhhhhh! The smell of, ignorance, STINKS!

By vic

Remember that John Lennon was the Beatle who said that "They were more popular than Jesus Christ".

By RAY

Only SMALL people dis the dead, while I am partial to John and Paul, as they really made a very talented team. There are so many people that are so envious of the success of other people they will spew venom at anyone more successful than themselves, when they don't have the slightest clue of why they are such failures. Oh yeah and for the most part they hate themselves more than the person they're usually dissing. And they are, for the most part, of the reactive mind type.

By swordsman

John Lennon was a jerk, who only appealed to women and sissy-boy men. In fact, he was responsible for breaking up the Beatles, after he got hooked up with that loser, Yoko Ono, and kept taking her to the recording studio. No one else could stand her, and for good reason.

By peapers

Lennon fans make it difficult to just enjoy his music. He was not an extraordinary human being and he did not, like he said himself, have any answers to life's problems. He was just a lightning rod to aimless people during a confusing time. He did create some very good music during his time with the Beatles. I own every single song they made.

By dcampe7

If you guys really loved John, you wouldn't be knocking Yoko. They loved each other. End of story.

By loufalce

The media makes a big deal about Lenin`s death, yet only gives minor coverage to the day before-Dec 7th, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.Guess we got our priorities all screwed up.

By Michael

His death was a tragedy, but let us not make a deity of the man who wrote "Imagine there are no possessions..." when he was one of the wealthiest people in show business. I find Mother Teresa far more credible than a rich pop star with a populist message. Lennon had plenty of possessions when he died...

By Gary

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
a girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

By Liz

John would have been so disappointed in the world today, but knowing him he would have tried to find the good in it all. I was 11 when i heard the news I was watching Monday night Football. I couldn't believe it. Things have changed so much since then.

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