Gary James' Interview With
The Co-conductor of John Lennon's last interview
on December 8th, 1980
Laurie Kaye
December 8th, 1980 started off like any other day, but by day's end it would go down in Rock History as one of the most tragic days of all time. John Lennon was murdered while walking from his limousine to his apartment in New York City. Earlier in the day, Laurie Kaye, along with Davie Sholin interviewed John for the RKO Radio Network. It would be the last interview John Lennon ever gave. Laurie Kaye has written about that interview and her life in music titled Confessions Of A Rock And Roll Name Dropper: My Life Leading Up To John Lennon's Last Interview. We spoke to Laurie Kay about her interview with John Lennon.
Q - Laurie, how did your interview with John Lennon come about? In your book you say the rumor was that Paul McCartney recommended you to John because you had interviewed him and he liked you. Is that true?
A - True. I did hear that rumor, but basically our RKO Radio team got the interview thanks to Music Director Dave Sholin's relationship with Warner Bros. and Geffen Records' Executive team who came along with us. Plus, the fact that Dave and I, along with producer and engineer Ron Hummel, all co-produced and I was the one that researched and wrote the biggest Beatles special ever created in the U.S., a fourteen hour long RKO Presents The Beatles, which we expanded up to seventeen hours for syndication using the title I'd originally come up with: The Beatles: From Liverpool To Legend.
Q - How big of a reach did RKO Radio Network have in 1980? How many stations were affiliated with RKO?
A - Well, the RKO Radio Network was a commercial radio network that operated in the U.S. from 1979 to 1985 as part of the RKO General broadcasting Company that began its operations back on October 1st, 1979. It was the first new full-service American radio network to be launched in forty years and also the first commercial radio network to distribute programming entirely by satellite. RKO was popular right from the start, signing up hundred of network affiliated radio stations from coast to coast. It's base was the RKO General owned radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and so many other large markets.
Q - What part of the day did you interview John and how long did the interview last?
A - We arrived at The Dakota at about 11:30 A.M. and as described fully in my book, spent time first in John and Yoko's outer office with their staff telling us they were both still upstairs in their apartment just finishing up their photo session with Annie Leibovitz of Rolling Stone magazine. We were ushered in to John and Yoko's private office, an incredibly decorated and furnished room, to set up for our interview, which we waited for them. And Yoko arrived downstairs first since John was still upstairs doing a bunch of solo photos. I started off talking to her. She was obviously happy to have another female in the room with her. John came down just over a half hour later and we all spent the entire afternoon together, with John sitting super close to me on his office love seat. We finished our incredible interview and had family talk, took pictures together, got autographs and made plans to get together soon in San Francisco, all about until 4:30 PM. That's when the RKO guys dropped him off at the recording studio on their way to the airport because they were going back to the West Coast, although I was staying the night in New York.
Q - And when he returned to The Dakota, he was in a limousine, which means he must have called a limo service at some point in the evening.
A - Yes. His own limo was probably able to pick him up by then. They weren't available to take them to the recording studio before hand.
Q - I've always read that John gave his last interview to Andy Peebles on December 6th. But you interviewed John on December 8th. So, who got the last interview with John? It would appear to be you.
A - Our RKO team definitely conducted what tragically became John Lennon's last interview. Andy Peebles did the final British one for BBC Radio, but it was two days before.
Q - On page 194 of your book, you were warned not to bring up anything about John's past, and only talk about the present. Who warned you? His publicist?
A - Well, not only did Warner Bro. Geffen Executive Bert Kean tell us right off the bat not to bring up The Beatles at all or anything about John's past, but he reminded us again and again during our flight to New York as well as when we spent our Plaza Hotel evening together the night before the interview. Plus, I was reading John's Playboy magazine interview while on our flight out from California while I was coming up with questions for our interview, it became obvious how pissed off John must have been to have too much of his past brought up when he absolutely wanted to concentrate solely on his current life.
Q - John comes off as being more positive, more upbeat and friendly because you didn't ask him about his past.
A - Right. He was thrilled to talk to us and loved our questions, which I'd come up with, and brought up everything on his own. He was the one who brought up The Beatles, not us.
Q - On page 195 he was talking about how The Beatles were put together. He said he recognized Paul's talent. And then he says, now twelve or however many years later, "I met Yoko. I had the same feeling. So, I think as a talent scout I've done pretty well." So, to me anyway, he seems to equate Yoko's talent with Paul's?! Did an incredulous look come over your face when he said that?
A - Well, John definitely recognized and was thrilled to let everyone know how talented he found Yoko to be from the very beginning, especially when they created their first album. "Two Virgins", while together at his house on their very first official date. Not only was I not surprised that he enjoyed working with and listening to Yoko's voice at night from the very start, but it also reminded me exactly what Paul McCartney had told us during our London interview with him the year before, about how excited and impressed he was to create music and perform with his talented wife, Linda.
Q - When John was introduced to Yoko, she said she didn't know who he was. Do you believe that? By the time John met Yoko the whole world knew who The Beatles were.
A - Well, it was November, 1966 when John met Yoko at a London Gallery opening party for her upcoming art show. He told us, "The guy that introduced me to her said she didn't know who the hell I was. She had no idea." He figured it was primarily due to the fact that she was a conceptual artist. Although as he admitted and now understood what that meant, he had no clue back then. He described conceptual art to us as artwork where the idea is more important than the object.
Q - How did John look to you? Did he look good to you?
A - John looked amazing, totally handsome, in great shape, well dressed and with a perfectly cued haircut, all of which he put together considering he and Yoko were having their big Rolling Stone magazine shoot earlier that morning. Even though he took a well-known naked photo for Rolling Stone with Yoko, who was fully dressed in it, his outfit and his glasses were still super good looking on him.
Q - I recall John being critical of The Stones in Jann Wenner's Lennon Remembers book because they were still touring. But John was excited to get back on the road. Does that strike you as being strange?
A - Well, as John told us, "I'm so hungry for making records and because of the way I feel I'm going to make some more records before I tour." Plus he said he wanted to create one more album before actually making the final decision of taking his very expensive session musicians on the road with him and Yoko. He also told us that when they originally started recording "Double Fantasy", he had no intention what-so-ever of going 'live', but in the studio the musicians he hired began saying, "Can we do this again? Let's take it on the road." So, John decided that yes, it would be fun, especially to be expected performance-wise as John and Yoko. But, he let us know that he had no desire what-so-ever to think about what type of venues he wanted to book, either huge ones like New York's Madison Square Garden or small nightclub. He couldn't begin to decide.
Q - When you left The Dakota on December 8th you saw a group of people hanging around outside the entrance to The Dakota. Do you know why someone from Security or Management didn't tell those people to leave? I believe other celebrities lived there. Didn't Lauren Bacall live there?
A - I honestly don't know. John was no doubt used to having fans hanging around outside The Dakota and the building security department didn't seem to tell anyone to leave 'cause it wasn't like there was hundreds of people there. What I wish of course that I had done, and I felt guilty about ever since, was reporting the creepy guy who kept bugging me outside by asking after I came out from the interview, "Did you talk to him? Did you get his autograph?" Over and over. He started following me down the sidewalk. Had I gone up to a security guy and told him to get rid of that obnoxious dude, maybe they would have been able to see he was carrying a gun in his coat pocket, the one that he would use just a few hours later to shoot and kill John when he returned from his studio session. I found out years later, singer / songwriter James Taylor moved close by at the time and the day before John got murdered, James happened to be outside The Dakota and also had a crappy meet-up with that asshole assassin who wouldn't shut up or leave him alone. Plus, James said the next night from his own place he heard the five shots that were fired and ended up killing John and he found out it was the same guy. Damn!
Official Website: www.ConfessionsOfARocknRollNameDropper.com
© Gary James. All rights reserved.
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The Dakota apartment building in New York City
© Photo by James W. Pollock
