On This Day in 1980: John Lennon Gives Final Rolling Stone Interview, Talks Yoko, Life, and ‘Double Fantasy’

On December 5, 1980, John Lennon gave what would be his final interview to Rolling Stone. He would be murdered three days later. In the nine-hour interview, Lennon gave editor Jonathan Cott a look at his domestic life with Yoko Ono and their son Sean, and provided insights into their recent album, Double Fantasy. He spoke freely and openly with Cott, who had first met Lennon and Ono in 1968. Initially, the interview was scheduled to run as the first cover story of 1981. However, Lennon’s tragic murder changed the magazine’s plans. Cott wrote Lennon’s obituary instead, and never fully transcribed his interview. It was later published in full in 2010.

Throughout the conversation, John Lennon would mention little things that Yoko Ono had taught him or told him, share an experience he had with Sean, or mention his former bandmates in passing. Since the interview was being held in the Lennons’ apartment in New York, there were charming moments of domesticity peppered throughout the text. Ono once came into the room and declared that someone was on the phone claiming to be George Harrison. When she started asking him questions, he hung up, and she called Harrison’s number to find out he’d actually been sleeping. Lennon expressed that they had to laugh about it, or “we’d go crazy, wouldn’t we?”

In particular, John Lennon spoke at length about Double Fantasy, which had come out that November. It was mentioned that not a lot of rock stars would make an album with their wife and give her half of the record. Lennon reflected that it was the first time they’d made an album like that.

[RELATED: Sean Lennon on Yoko Ono: “She Never Has Moved On” From Relationship With John Lennon]

John Lennon Gave Delightfully Open Insights Into His Life and Process in Final Rolling Stone Interview

While John Lennon and Yoko Ono had made a similar record before where she had one side and he had the other, Lennon explained that this one was different. “Double Fantasy is a dialogue, and we have resurrected ourselves, in a way, as John and Yoko – not as John ex-Beatle and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band,” he said.

“It’s just the two of us, and our position was that, if the record didn’t sell, it meant people didn’t want to know about John and Yoko – either they didn’t want John anymore or they didn’t want John with Yoko or maybe they just wanted Yoko, or whatever. But if they didn’t want the two of us, we weren’t interested,” he added.

Lennon explained that he had only considerably worked with two people throughout his career—Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. “That ain’t bad picking,” he said. Lennon continued to speak about the record, art school, his inability to play, and the general selfishness of artists, among other topics. He spoke about Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen and their careers, and how he hoped Springsteen could weather the changes in his audience as time progressed. He also mentioned critics, the years he took off when Sean was born, and how torturous writing was for him.

Overall, John Lennon’s lengthy final Rolling Stone interview gives incredible insight into the man and the musician; how he was at home with his wife and son, and how he was when he was just talking to a friend.

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