John Lennon will always be associated with peace and love, but the rock icon also wasn’t afraid to show his darker side when necessary.
Producer Jack Douglas was a close friend and collaborator of Lennon’s for many years and was part of the musicians inner circle. During a recent appearance on The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan, Douglas recalled a contentious evening alongside the Beatle.
“One night [Lennon] called me up,” the producer remembered. “And he said, ‘I have to go to this party. There’s all these kind of nutcases here. I just want you to keep an eye on things because I don’t know them personally.’ It was Abbie Hoffman and that whole crew.”
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Hoffman was a political and social activist and one of the leaders of the Flower Power movement. Lennon came into his orbit in the early ‘70s, a connection which led the Beatle to be investigated by the FBI.
John Lennon ‘Grabbed a Knife’
At the party in question, Douglas recalled Lennon getting irritated by some activists who were pushing radical extremism.
“They were talking in this apartment. [Saying things like] ‘Off the pig’ and they were talking about violence,” Douglas explained, adding that Lennon “was getting drunker and drunker” during the conversation.
“He made quite a scene at that party,” the producer continued. “He grabbed a knife in the kitchen and he went at this woman who had been yelling to off the pigs. And he was like, ‘You want violence? I’ll show you violence!’ He scared the shit out of her. And then we left.”
While Lennon obviously bristled with some of Hoffman’s associates, he remained linked to the activist for several years. Notably, Hoffman’s politically-charged rhetoric influenced Some Time in New York City by the Plastic Ono Band.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
