If you’re familiar with the history of the Beatles, then you likely know all about John Lennon‘s infamous 1966 interview, the one in which he compared the Beatles to none other than Jesus Christ.
“Christianity will go,” he said to reporter Maureen Cleave. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
Those words appeared in an article in the London Evening Standard on March 4, 1966, though nothing much became of them. It wasn’t until bits of the same quote appeared out of context in the American teen magazine Datebook that U.S. audiences in particular took serious offense.
Especially in the Bible Belt, Lennon’s words created huge controversy, sometimes to the point of “Beatle boycotts” by radio stations and other media outlets. The timing was deeply inconvenient, too, as the Beatles were then on the cusp of launching a U.S. tour. Lennon eventually explained his statement as best he could at a press conference, as did the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, but the quote became legendary in the band’s history.
But what you might not know is that Lennon said a number of weird things in that same interview with Cleave. Below, we’ve pulled out five of them.
1. Possibly an Even More Offensive Quote
Believe it or not, what Lennon said about Jesus and Christianity isn’t even the most offensive thing he said in that interview. At another point, he mentions that his son Julian, then three years old, may be sent to a French school in London.
“Seems the only place for him in his position,” he said. “I feel sorry for him, though. I couldn’t stand ugly people even when I was five. Lots of the ugly ones are foreign, aren’t they?”
2. Random Objects From Lennon’s Home
Throughout Cleave’s entire article, she notes various eclectic objects that only someone with Beatle wealth would have in their home. These included a room full of model racing cars, which was apparently “a hobby I had for a week,” a suit of armor he’d named Sidney, a fruit machine and a gorilla suit.
“I thought I might need a gorilla suit,” he said. “I’ve only worn it twice. I thought I might pop it on in the summer and drive round in the Ferrari. We [the Beatles] were all going to get them and drive round in them but I was the only one who did. I’ve been thinking about it and if I didn’t wear the head it would make an amazing fur coat — with legs, you see.”
3. Ironically, Multiple Items Relating to Christianity
Weirdly enough, Lennon’s home actually contained several religious items, which Cleave noted. These included “a huge altar crucifix of a Roman Catholic nature with IHS on it” and “an enormous Bible he bought in Chester.”
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4. Sex Was His Only Physical Activity
At this point in time, the Beatles spent much of their time within the confines of their own homes, cars and other private spaces — “They are famous in the way the Queen is famous,” Cleave wrote. Public outings were simply too chaotic when it came to hoards of fans.
Perhaps because of his isolated sort of life, Lennon was described not once, but a few times as lazy in this article, something he seemed to insist to Cleave.
“Physically lazy,” he explained. “I don’t mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with any more.”
5. Sea Urchin in His Toe?
On the day of the interview, Cleave accompanied Lennon on an outing that included lunch and a visit to a doctor for “a bit of sea urchin in his toe,” though Lennon assured Cleave that he had “washed the foot in question.”
As it turns out, Lennon and his wife Cynthia had gone on vacation in January of 1966 to the Caribbean with Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen — Starr even took a photo of Lennon on the beach there, with an urchin in his foot.
“Don’t want to be like Dorothy Dandridge,” Lennon said to Cleave back then, “dying of a splinter 50 years later.”
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
