The John Lennon prediction

[hartley967]

Does anyone recall a show (possibly 69-70) that John Lennon was on , in which he said he would be shot at sometime?

is this a false memory or can anyone confirm it? or if it still exists?

[Kev Mulrenan]

There's footage of a bearded Lennon circa 69 reading a letter to Yoko from a fan.

It states his life is in danger and the message had come from the deceased Brian Epstein.

Could that be it?

[Paul Hayes]

There's definitely a bit on the Anthology where he says that they could all get taken out by some loony at any time. I think it's from either their first or second tour of America - as I recall it's used in the Anthology over other footage. I couldn't even begin to guess where it might be from.

[hartley967]

Thanks chaps.
I was pretty sure it was an studio interview thing but as you say it probably came off of 'anthology'

Crikey 'anthology' was over ten years ago now!

[SydV]

Quite a number of biographies allude to Lennon having some kind of premonition that he was going to be shot (or at least die a violent death) and that he accepted it as his karma for a violent past (both in deed and thought).

His first wife Cynthia wrote in her 2nd book: “John had lived with the fear that he would be shot. In 1966 he'd received a letter from a psychic, warning that he would be shot while he was in the States. We were both upset by that: the Beatles were about to do their last tour of the States and, of course, we thought the warning referred to that trip. He had just made his infamous remark about the Beatles being more popular than Christ and the world was in an uproar about it—crank letters and warnings arrived by every post. But that one had stuck in his mind.”

The “spirit of Brian Epstein” warning letter was read by Lennon on the 15/Dec/1969 BBC1 “24 Hours - World of John and Yoko” programme and I think that clip may have also been included on the 1988 “Imagine: John Lennon” biopic. Of course, he also sang “The way things are going, they’re going to crucify me” on the 1969 hit “Ballad of John and Yoko” but I’m not aware of him ever making any serious direct claim that he was going to be shot in an interview. If there is a tape of Lennon that proves he knew he was going to die in such a terrible manner, then for me it would be his demo recording of “Stranger’s room” as included on the “Lennon Anthology” box set.

[Tom Tellam]

I was reading recently that when the "Threetles" got together to record Free as a Bird, Paul sensed John's presence and said in retrospect there was a lot of odd activity in the studio: instruments being moved about, things being turned on and off. The group backtracked John using George Formby's tag-line "Turned out nice again!" and were surprised when it actually came out as "Made by John Lennon". Also at a photo-session for the Anthology, a giant white peacock appeared out of nowhere and at the time Ringo even commented that he thought it was John. All pretty strange stuff.

[Peter Chadwick]

Lennon's fears probably reached their height when Mal Evans was shot dead by police in 1975 (or '76); this (unsurprisingly) shook him badly.