Why Everyone’s Reactions at His Final Performance Made John Lennon Feel Guilty

When John Lennon took the stage at Madison Square Garden for his final performance in 1974, the former Beatle had no way of knowing it would be his last. Perhaps if he did, he would have opted to do more than a humble three-song set—a choice he only made because the show’s headliner was Elton John, and Lennon was merely holding up his end of a bet.

Moreover, if Lennon had known he would never go on stage again, everyone else’s intense emotions wouldn’t have made him feel as guilty as he did.

Why John Lennon Felt Guilty During His Final Performance

Few things in John Lennon’s life could be categorized as “normal,” and his final public performance was no different. He joined Elton John onstage at Madison Square Garden in 1974 as part of a bet. After Lennon and John collaborated on “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” John was so certain the song would hit No.1 that he made a bet with Lennon. If the track went No. 1, Lennon had to join him onstage at MSG. The song hit No. 1. Lennon obliged.

Years after the Beatles breakup, Lennon’s appearance at Madison Square Garden was a sight to behold. And it wasn’t just the audience who felt that way. “Everybody else was in tears,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1975. “I felt guilty ‘cause I wasn’t in tears. I just went up and did a few numbers.”

“The emotional thing was me and Elton together,” he continued. “Elton had been working in Dick James’ office when we used to send our demos in, and there’s a long sort of relationship, musically, with Elton that people don’t really know about. He had this sort of Beatle thing from way back. He’d take the demos home and play them, and, well, it meant a lot to me, and it meant a hell of a lot to Elton. He was in tears. It was a great, high night.”

Lennon and John performed three tracks together, including their recent No. 1 hit, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” They also performed “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which John had recently covered. And finally, they played “I Saw Her Standing There,” harkening back to the early Beatles days when John was fielding their demos at Dick James’ office.

There Was An Even More Emotional Moment Backstage

There are two legends surrounding John Lennon’s final performance at Madison Square Garden, but only one of them is real. The first (and true) story is of the bet between Elton John and Lennon before the show. The second (and false) story was that the MSG performance marked the official reunion of Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono. While the couple didn’t reconnect in a romantic sense that night, they did physically reconnect from across the room, creating another highly emotional moment.

“Yoko and I met backstage,” Lennon recalled. “Somebody said, ‘Well, there’s two people in love.’ That was before we got back together. But that’s probably when we felt something. It was very weird. She came backstage, and I didn’t know she was there ‘cause if I’d known she was there, I’d have been too nervous to go on. I would have been terrified. She was backstage afterward, and there was just that moment when we saw each other and, like, it’s like in the movies, you know, when time stands still?”

“There was silence. Everything went silent. We were just sort of lookin’ at each other…oh, hello. I didn’t know she was there, and then everybody was around us, and flash flash flash,” Lennon said. “But there was that moment of silence, and somebody observed it and told me later on, after we were back together again, and said, ‘A friend of mine saw you two backstage and thought if ever there was two in love, it’s those two.’ And I thought, well, it’s weird somebody noticed it.”

Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns