John Lennon gave a candid interview to Rolling Stone magazine in 1971 where he openly discussed his past drug use, mental health struggles with paranoia, and criticism of his marriage to Yoko Ono. The interview provided insight into John's personal philosophy and experience with the Beatles' rise to fame. It highlighted how the Beatles evolved from being rockers in Liverpool to cultural icons associated with the swinging 1960s in London. John also expressed how humiliating it was to attain the level of fame and popularity the Beatles achieved.

1. Notes on ‘Lennon Remembers’ (2000) by Jann S. Wenner
This is a transcript of an interview with John Lennon by Jann Wenner who
was editor of Rolling Stone magazine when the interview was published, over
two issues of the magazine. At the time, many stoned freaks would have
ploughed their way through the dense type over many pages of the magazine
for the two issues. It epitomised the difference between Rolling Stone and
its contemporaries, IT (International Times) and Oz. The latter two papers
would be lighthearted with cartoons and tips on growing cannabis at home.
After many years of being straight, it remained quite a task to read through
this compendium of the two parts of the interview. With hindsight of the
passed years, you get a better understanding of where John was coming
from. Many subjects he talks about relate to the twenty-teens obsession
with fame and personality. His descriptions of his times to 1971 are clearer
by looking back over the years, the careers of the other Beatles, the deaths
of John himself and George, and the zeitgeist he details with his own
philosophy and personality.
A visit to Liverpool will allow you to go on a Beatles Tour. Not only is it
helpful to see local places such as Strawberry Field, Penny Lane and places
referred to in song lyrics, you can see the Beatles home territory. The posh
places where Brian Epstein and his family lived. The houses where the
Beatles lived. John had connections to a business in the family. Paul’s Mum
was a stalwart of the local health community. George and Ringo lived in
terraced houses. The places where the Fab Four were mobbed even in 1963
shortly after they hit the charts. The houses they bought for their parents
and family once they had made it rich: the stories about John arriving in his
flower-painted Rolls Royce.
A visit to some of their early haunts puts the context of their youth culture
allegiance. A drummer before Ringo was Pete Best. The group played at the
Casbah Coffee Club which you can still visit. It’s in the basement of a
detached house in its own garden. The Cavern Club was demolished, the
Casbah remains. Pete Best’s Mum owned the Casbah and his brother Roge will
now give you a quality tour of the place and tell you how the Best family was
involved in the starred trajectory of the Beatles. Many people will associate
the Beatles with the Swinging Sixties, with Swinging London, the Union Jack
Mods. However, they were Rockers in Liverpool. They would play all the rock
and roll songs associated with leather jackets, crash helmets, and

2. motorcycles such as AJS, Norton, Matchless, Francis Barnett, Ariel Arrows,
BSA, and so on. They were Rockers, not Mods. Yet a few months later they
would be hip, members of My Generation alongside the Kinks, the Small
Faces, The Who, and the Rolling Stones. They would be playing on Top of the
Pops on TV to an audience of mini-skirted girls and boys with backcombed
hair. In 1967 they would don the late Mod uniform of antique military
uniforms for the cover of Sergeant Pepper. John really throws into relief
this change, puts it in his personal context.
Another interesting feature of John’s interview is his references to
paranoia, in the 21st
century definitely associated to mental illness. So it’s
good that John discusses this readily and openly, to talk is something still an
aspiration only for many affected by mental illness and the accompanying
stigma in modern times. John talks about drug use, and it’s far and away not
what the average pop fan or pot-head thought was going on. For pot-heads it
was that cannabis was a soft drug, not addictive like heroin or cocaine. So
the drug use that John relates to that time, of thousands of LSD trips and
sniffing H, and other stuff, is way beyond what was in the public domain at
the time.
‘Forward’ by Yoko Ono, July 2000: Yoko starts by saying John would have
loved new media and the internet. She says John was a punk before Sid
Vicious came on the scene with the Sex Pistols a few years after this
interview. John uses ‘politically incorrect’ terms and had married Yoko who
was ‘eight years older,’ and a Jap, or a Chink, or a Bitch. There was an ugly
caricature of Yoko with John on her leash in the press. John hits back at
these attacks, and Yoko is his sidekick laughing at the right and wrong times.
Introduction to the New Edition by Jann S. Wenner, July 2000: This
was originally published in 1971. It’s candid and a running commentary of
John’s fresh and urgent matters, and Rolling Stone is a public outlet for the
couple. Jann restates that the Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’, which
did not go down well everywhere, particularly in parts of the States. John
had just been through Primal Scream Therapy with the practitioner Arthur
Janov, and Rolling Stone magazine remained a vehicle for John. Johns says
this : One has to completely humiliate oneself to be what the Beatles were.
(Me: what a statement, and crucial to where John was at and how to
understand him.) John can’t think of anything to ameliorate that fact. Jann
asks about the track ‘When I’m 64’. Coincidentally I have just turned 64 in

3. writing this summary. All proceeds from John’s interview will go to gun
control.