John Lennon: ‘didn’t want to be a dead hero’

Three days before he was murdered, John Lennon said he did not want to be a “dead hero”...The remark was made in an interview with journalist Jonathan Cott, who recently found ‘lost’ tapes as he cleared a cupboard and made them public on the legend’s 30th death anniversary. When Cott played them he heard the Beatles legend complaining bitterly about pop critics. Lennon 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 f***ing hero. So forget ‘em, forget ‘em.” Poignantly, he also said he had ‘plenty of time’ to accomplish other goals in his life. Cott, of Rolling Stone magazine, recorded the interview on December 5 1980. On December 8 Lennon, 40, was shot dead by crazed fan Mark Chapman outside his New York apartment. Only snippets of the interview were published in the aftermath of the murder - and Cott locked the tapes away.
In the interview, called ‘uplifting’ by Cott, Lennon also talked about his continued commitment to love and peace, and spoke of his bond with wife Yoko Ono.
“I’ve selected to work with only two people, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. That ain’t bad picking,” he said.

30th anniversary of John Lennon's death

Millions of Beatles fans around the world have begun marking the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death.

The musician, who would have also celebrated his 70th birthday this year, was shot dead outside his New York home on December 8th, 30 years ago today.

His widow, Yoko Ono, led the tributes, asking people to remember her husband “with deep love and respect”.

She added: “The world was lucky to have known him. We still learn so much from him today. John, I love you."

Ono is due to perform at a concert in Japan called Dream Power John Lennon Super Live

In Lennon's home city of Liverpool, hundreds of fans are expect to attended a vigil to the late star at the recently unveiled Peace and Harmony memorial

The Teamaker

THE TEAMAKER
by Yoko Ono Lennon

John and I are in our Dakota kitchen in the middle of the night. Three cats: Sasha, Micha and Charo are looking up at John, who is making tea for us two.

Sasha is all white, Micha is all black. They are both gorgeous, classy Persian cats. Charo, on the other hand, is a mutt. John used to have a special love for Charo. “You’ve got a funny face, Charo!” he would say and pat her.

“Yoko, Yoko, you’re supposed to first put the tea bags in, and then the hot water.” John took the role of the teamaker, for being English. So I gave up doing it. It was nice to be up in the middle of the night, when there’s no sound in the house, and sip the tea John would make.

One night, however, John came up with “I was talking to Aunt Mimi this afternoon and she says you are supposed to put the hot water in first. Then the tea bag. I could swear she taught me to put the tea bag in first, but…”

“So all this time, we were doing it wrong?”
“Yeah…”
We both cracked up. That was in 1980. Neither of us knew that it was to be the last year of our life together.

This year would have been the 70th birthday year for John if only he was here. But people are not questioning if he is here or not. They just love him and are keeping him alive with their love. I’ve received notes from all corners of the world to let me know that they were celebrating this year to thank John for having given us so much in his forty short years on earth.

The most important gift we received from him was not words, but deeds. He believed in Truth, and had dared to speak up. We all knew that he upset certain powerful people with it. But that was John. He couldn’t have been in any other way. If he were here now, I think he would have shouted so we can all hear it. That truth was important. Because without knowing all the truth of what we did, we could not achieve world peace.

On this day, the day he was assassinated for being a truth seeker and a communicator, what I remember is the night we both cracked up drinking tea.

They say teenagers laugh with a drop of a hat. But nowadays I see many teenagers angry and sad at each other. John and I were hardly teenagers. But my memory of us is that we were a couple who laughed.

Yoko Ono Lennon
December 8th, 2010
Tokyo, Japan.