BBC to broadcast 'amazing' John Lennon interview for first time

Nov 18, 2005, 13:29 GMT

London - An interview in which former Beatle John Lennon rails against fellow-band member Paul McCartney and calls Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones 'a joke' is to be broadcast for the first time next month, British press reports said Friday.

In a series to mark the 25th anniversary of Lennon's assassination in New York on December 8, 1980, BBC radio will transmit the taped interview on December 3.

The interview, conducted by Jann Wenner, the founder of 'Rolling Stone' magazine, has been published before in article form but has never been heard in the singer's words, the Daily Telegraph said.

Lennon, who is at times angry and sad at the break-up of the band, describes McCartney as 'all form and no substance' and dismisses Jagger as 'a joke'.

He says the Beatles are in 'a different class' from all other rivals, although he claims that the band 'stifled' his creativity.

Lennon says that his songwriting relationship with McCartney was over as early as 1962, after which 'we did our best work apart'.

The hour-long interview, comprising highlights of the original four-hour tapes, will include up-to-date reflections by Wenner and Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, who was present during the interview in New York.

Simon Hollis, the producer, said: 'It is an amazing interview in which he shows all his colours. He is at times caustic, angry, vulnerable and needy.

'Everything was obviously still very raw for him. He is like a hurricane just firing off like crazy. He is furious about the way the other Beatles treated Yoko,' he said.

Hollis said the tapes showed Lennon's ambivalence towards McCartney: 'At one time he says he is all form and no substance but then says he is great and equal to him. He is obviously very angry with Paul.'