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Watch John Lennon’s only filmed interview of 1980

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This is fascinating. Here, Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn interviewed John Lennon in the Hit Factory Studios where John and Yoko Ono were recording and mixing Double Fantasy. This was recorded on 10 October, 1980, a day after John’s 40th birthday and less than two months before his death.

Apparently, John’s personal assistant, Fred Seaman, had set up on the console in front of Hilburn and Lennon a new RCA video camera and began filming. It is the only video interview of John in 1980. Although the quality isn’t very good and someone seems to be watching Star Wars in the background (it’s a racket!), it’s a poignant watch, with John at his likeable best. He covers many topics, including the quality of his solo albums and the music of Paul McCartney (and how much he likes Coming Up). Click ‘more’ to watch the interview.

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19 thoughts on “Watch John Lennon’s only filmed interview of 1980”

  1. From what I’ve gathered I don’t think Yoko has any of this. A lot of stuff was stolen from her in the days after John’s passing, including tapes, films and various memorabilia.

  3. Is this an attempt to redress the balance given all the articles about Paul McCartney recently? The Beatles had their moments but please don’t become an online equivalent of Mojo magazine where every other cover seems be about The Beatles or their subsequent solo careers!

  4. It’s ridiculous but I wish Doctor Who was real. He could just go back in the Tardis and stop Mark Chapman from doing it. Hard not to feel cheated when someone is murdered. Slightly easier to accept when it’s natural causes, even if Bowie’s death was still hard to take.

      1. The Andy Peebles BBC interview was done on December 6. The one you’re thinking of, the one he did on the day he died, was by RKO Radio.

        I believe the RKO radio interview was originally recorded with the intent of being broadcast on or around Valentine’s Day 1981, but after Lennon died, it was aired the following Sunday (December 14) as a tribute, “John Lennon: The Man, The Memory.”

  6. I might be wrong but I think they were doing some primitive sampling from the Star Wars film which got used on Yoko’s song Beautiful Boys, can anyone confirm this?
    Was Yoko’s doing an art piece – Yoko sleeping!
    This looks like a 10th generation duplicate, I wonder if Yoko will ever allow us to see the original tape?
    Amazing to see this, John had definitely mellowed but the problem with John is that he’d do an interview a few days later which would contradict what he’d said previously. But it was nice to hear him compliment Paul.

  8. Chapman’s next parole hearing (his 9th) is scheduled for August 2016. They will never let him out as someone is bound to do to him what he did to Lennon!

  11. After watching it I can’t help thinking if only the fisherman had not found him. We may still have had Lennon alive instead of Chapman.

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