Playboy Interview 1980
Page 3
John: They want to hold on to something they never
had in the first place. Anybody who claims to have some interest in me as an
individual artist or even as part of the Beatles has absolutely misunderstood
everything I ever said if they can't see why I'm with Yoko. And if they can't
see that, they don't see anything. They're just jacking off to - it could be
anybody. Mick Jagger or somebody else. Let them go jack off to Mick Jagger, OK?
I don't need it.
Playboy: He'll appreciate that.
John: I absolutely don't need it. Let them chase Wings. Just forget about me. If
that's what you want, go after Paul or Mick. I ain't here for that. If that's
not apparent in my past, I'm saying it in black and green, next to all the tits
and asses on page 196. Go play with the other boys. Don't bother me. Go play
with the Rolling Wings.
Playboy: Do you...
John: No, wait a minute. Let's stay with this a second; sometimes I can't let go
of it. [He is on his feet, climbing up the refrigerator] Nobody ever said
anything about Paul's having a spell on me or my having one on Paul! They never
thought that was abnormal in those days, two guys together, or four guys
together! Why didn't they ever say, "How come those guys don't split up? I
mean, what's going on backstage? What is this Paul and John business? How can
they be together so long?" We spent more time together in the early days
than John and Yoko: the four of us sleeping in the same room, practically in the
same bed, in the same truck, living together night and day, eating, shitting and
pissing together! All right? Doing everything together! Nobody said a damn thing
about being under a spell. Maybe they said we were under the spell of Brian
Epstein or George Martin [the Beatles' first manager and producer,
respectively]. There's always somebody who has to be doing something to you. You
know, they're congratulating the Stones on being together 112 years. Whoooopee!
At least Charlie and Bill still got their families. In the Eighties, they'll be
asking, "Why are those guys still together? Can't they hack it on their
own? Why do they have to be surrounded by a gang? Is the little leader scared
somebody's gonna knife him in the back?" That's gonna be the question.
That's-a-gonna be the question! They're gonna look back at the Beatles and the
Stones and all those guys are relics. The days when those bands were just all
men will be on the newsreels, you know. They will be showing pictures of the guy
with lipstick wriggling his ass and the four guys with the evil black make-up on
their eyes trying to look raunchy. That's gonna be the joke in the future, not a
couple singing together or living and working together. It's all right when
you're 16, 17, 18 to have male companions and idols, OK? It's tribal and it's
gang and it's fine. But when it continues and you're still doing it when you're
40, that means you're still 16 in the head.
Playboy: Let's start at the beginning. Tell us the story of how the wondrous
mystic prince and the exotic Oriental dragon lady met.
John: It was in 1966 in England. I'd been told about this "event" -
this Japanese avant-garde artist coming from America.
I was looking around the gallery and I saw this ladder and climbed up and got a
look in this spyglass on the top of the ladder - you feel like a fool - and it
just said, Yes. Now, at the time, all the avant-garde was smash the piano with a
hammer and break the sculpture and anti-, anti-, anti-, anti-, anti. It was all
boring negative crap, you know. And just that Yes made me stay in a gallery full
of apples and nails. There was a sign that said, Hammer A Nail In, so I said,
"Can I hammer a nail in?" But Yoko said no, because the show wasn't
opening until the next day. But the owner came up and whispered to her,
"Let him hammer a nail in. You know, he's a millionaire. He might buy
it." And so there was this little conference, and finally she said,
"OK, you can hammer a nail in for five shillings." So smartass says,
"Well, I'll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary
nail in." And that's when we really met. That's when we locked eyes and she
got it and I got it and, as they say in all the interviews we do, the rest is
history.
Playboy: What happened next?
John: Of course, I was a Beatle, but things had begun to change. In 1966, just
before we met, I went to Almeria, Spain, to make the movie "How I Won the
War." It did me a lot of good to get away. I was there six weeks. I wrote
"Strawberry Fields" Forever" there, by the way. It gave me time
to think on my own, away from the others. From then on, I was looking for
somewhere to go, but I didn't have the nerve to really step out on the boat by
myself and push it off. But when I fell in love with Yoko, I knew, My God, this
is different from anything I've ever known. This is something other. This is
more than a hit record, more than gold, more than everything. It is
indescribable.
Playboy: Were falling in love with Yoko and wanting to leave the Beatles
connected?