Earlier this year, Boom Radio DJ Nicky Horne's wife was clearing out the family basement when she discovered a box of reel-to-reel tapes. Luckily, she asked her husband if they wanted them before throwing them away, because the box contained buried treasure: a 1975 interview with John Lennon in which the former Beatle claimed he was wiretapped, stalked and monitored by the US government.
“I know the difference between a normal telephone when I pick it up and a lot of noise,” Lennon tells Horn, who was a 25-year-old Capital Radio journalist in 1975. He got an interview with Lennon after Kenny Everett turned him down because, according to Lennon, it would be “about heavy stuff.”
“I was paranoid at the time time. Who wouldn't? Lennon continues. “I opened the door and there were guys standing on the other side of the street. I got into the car, and they were watching me and did not hide it. They wanted me to see that I was being followed.”
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Lennon claimed to have been on a CIA watch list since his release in 1971 Give me some trutha protest song against President Richard Nixon and his response to Vietnam, and he wasn't the only one. “People like Mick Jagger, Paul [McCartney]George [Harrison]“They're all having trouble getting in and out of the country,” he tells Horn. “Mick had to disappear down his own hatch to get Keith. [Richards] and the rest are even on tour. He did a lot of behind-the-scenes work just to get him in.”
The recordings, presented in an interview with Horn on Boom Radio, reveal not only the paranoia of the American administration at the time, they also serve as a portrait of one of the world's most famous rock stars as he tried to live something resembling a normal life in the Dakota Building in New York with Yoko Ono.
Horn remembers Lennon opening the door, saying, “How?” with his fist raised, and giving him a homemade cookie. From there, they walked into an all-white living room with a white carpet, a white piano and a brass telescope overlooking the Hudson River, sat on the carpet rather than the sofas, and chatted about London, radio and other things before Lennon moved on to the “heavy stuff.” As delighted as he was, Horn spilled chocolate chip cookie crumbs onto the pristine white carpet. He tried to pick them up without Lennon noticing.
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Lennon could not prove that his phone was tapped. “All I know is that the basement is undergoing a lot of renovation,” he says. Horn also spoke to the former Beatle about his nostalgia for Britain, how he limits his life to “bed, studio, TV”, returns to Yoko Ono after a year of Lost Weekend in Los Angeles and almost throws out Walls and bridgesan album made during that depraved time. “Yeah, I’m with Yoko again, and it’s pretty nice,” he says. “I feel a little sane again. It's normal, I wonder if the grass is greener, but when you get there there's more grass.”
One of the most poignant moments comes when Horn asks Lennon about the critical reaction to the Beatles and his solo albums. “How can someone record Imagine and decide that this is the best album I've ever made, and I'm 34? Barring natural disasters or anything else, I’ll be here for another 60 years.” As it turned out, he only stayed there for five.
