In December 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had not spoken to the media for more than five years. With a new album to pro | dG1fWmlSV1JrcFVLNUk
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00:00 In December 1980, BBC journalist Andy Peebles flew to New York
00:04 to interview the world's greatest rock star, John Lennon.
00:07 But I was really too scared to walk away.
00:09 I was considering life without the Beatles.
00:12 What would it be?
00:13 The Klugwerks clan were burning Beatle records
00:15 and I was held up as a safety minister.
00:17 The point of the bed in a nutshell was a commercial for peace.
00:23 During the interview, Lennon revealed many things
00:25 he'd never spoken about before.
00:27 We had a miscarriage or something, didn't we?
00:28 You had a miscarriage and I was there.
00:30 Here you've got a guy who is so honest and open about everything.
00:35 I was just writing the experience I'd had of withdrawing from heroin.
00:39 His heartfelt honesty and candid revelations surprised everyone.
00:42 I call it my lost weekend that lasted 18 months.
00:46 When he was without Dioko, it was like a little step backwards.
00:51 But what I did when she kicked me out was I hit the bottle
00:54 like I was an 18 or 19.
00:56 He spoke his mind about some of the most controversial moments in his life.
00:59 Because the most I could have done was gather a big gang of demonstrators
01:03 together which the police could have shot, you know,
01:04 so what are they complaining about?
01:06 You got a Beatle. You have an outspoken Beatle.
01:09 Do you really think Richard Nixon gave a crap about him?
01:12 Lennon was asked how safe he felt in New York.
01:14 I can go right out this door now and go in a restaurant.
01:18 You want to know how great that is?
01:20 48 hours later, he was gunned down in the street.
01:22 The realisation that John Lennon,
01:24 who I'd interviewed on Saturday night in New York,
01:26 had died while I was flying over the Atlantic
01:28 was a shattering experience.
01:29 Andy Peebles thought he was coming back
01:34 with eight reels of quarter-inch tape.
01:37 In fact, what he was coming back with
01:39 was probably the greatest obituary in the history of popular music.
01:44 This was Lennon's last weekend.
01:47 (dramatic music)
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]