Featured Image Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Topics: Music, Celebrity, Documentaries
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Music, Celebrity, Documentaries
A new documentary giving a peek into the life of late musician John Lennon includes a phone call the star made eight years before his murder which is haunting in hindsight.
John Lennon continues to be a fascinating and pioneering figure of the 60s and 70s and a new documentary is taking another look at the ups and downs of his life.
While many are familiar with his music in The Beatles, some are less aware of just how much of a political activist he was in the 70s.
One to One: John & Yoko, set to be released this year, focuses on Lennon and wife Yoko Ono’s move to New York as well as the tense political climate in the 1970s using never-before-seen footage and phone calls.
Advert
The documentary pays special attention to the Free the People Tour which Lennon had planned with activist Jerry Rubin as a mix of music and politics.
And the reason you likely haven’t heard of it is because it ultimately ended up being canceled.
The tour was set to climax at Republican Convention in August 1972, and Lennon’s goal was to raise money that would pay bail for people unable to afford it themselves.
But one scene shown features a phone call Lennon had with drummer Jim Keltner, and it proves particularly haunting when you remember how the star was killed.
Mark David Chapman, a former security guard and YMCA employee, shot and killed Lennon on December 8 1980, as he and his wife Yoko Ono were returning to their New York City apartment.
During the phone call, he makes it clear he is aware of the potential for violence due to his outspoken views.
Keltner asked Lennon if he has ‘any paranoia’ about people heading into the event and The Beatles singer replied: “What people?.. You mean people trying to kill us or something like that? I’m not about to get myself shot.
“It’ll cause excitement in its own way. But, er, you know, I’m still an artist, but a revolutionary artist, right?”
Lennon later admitted to a journalist that he had grown paranoid he was being followed and had even started taping his own phone calls.
The documentary showed a conversation he had where he said: “We started noticing people hanging outside the apartment. And I have a driver, he’s an ex-cop. But we’re getting followed by this car, all the time.
“So we’re all very nervous.”