7 Musicians’ Reactions to John Lennon’s Death: ‘I Stayed in Bed for a Week’
In 1980, John Lennon died after a fan shot him outside his apartment building, and the lives of many musicians were changed forever. Some knew Lennon personally; others had grown up with his songs. Regardless, his death sent shockwaves through the music world. Here’s how seven different musicians reacted to Lennon’s death.
Dolly Parton recalled watching the news coverage
For Dolly Parton, The Beatles were the soundtrack of her teenage years. She explained that she had planned to go out on the night of his death but ended up staying in to watch the news coverage.
“Everyone was so heartbroken,” she told Today. “Like all young teenage girls back then, I fell in love with the Beatles. Back there in the Smoky Mountains, it was like something had been dropped from outer space.”
Parton went on to cover Lennon’s song “Imagine.”
Tom Petty was angry over John Lennon’s death
When Tom Petty heard that Lennon had been shot, he initially thought it was a joke.
“A call came. It seemed like the early evening,” he said, per the book Conversations With Tom Petty by Paul Zollo. “A call came and said John had been shot. We just thought it was nonsense. And then a call came right back in about fifteen minutes that said that John’s dead. So we stopped work. And went home.”
He explained that he was furious that Lennon was dead.
“His death hurt real bad, still hurts,” he told Playboy in 1982. “Each time I see his picture or hear him sing, I immediately get pissed off that some f***ing jerk could just blow him away. In fact, the only two people I have ever looked up to, idolized — Lennon and Elvis — are both dead. And I’m not someone into idols.”
Elton John wrote a song for his friend
Elton John considered Lennon a good friend, so his death acutely impacted him.
“When John died, it really did affect me a lot,” he said, per Yahoo. “I still can’t believe sometimes that he’s not actually there. I was living in Paris at the time, and not going through a particularly good period in my life.”
He wrote a song about Lennon, but he said it makes it so emotional that he can’t perform it.
“I was very depressed, and I wrote an instrumental called ‘The Man Who Never Died’… And [Bernie] Taupin wrote ‘Empty Garden,'” he said, adding, “I was so impressed with mine, but when Bernie came up with the lyrics for ‘Empty Garden,’ I didn’t think anyone would be able to say anything without being clumsy or cheesy … I performed it once on a tour, and I won’t again. I find it very hard to sing. It upsets me to sing that song.”
Stevie Wonder broke the news to his audience
When Stevie Wonder heard the news of Lennon’s death, he was preparing to go onstage for the encore at a concert in California. He made the difficult decision to tell the audience about the tragedy.
“I want you all to understand that I’m not a person who likes to be the [bearer of] bad news,” he said, per Ultimate Classic Rock. “For those of you who don’t know this … it’s been really hard for me to do this show tonight but [I] did it in memory of people like this man … He was shot tonight … I’m talking about Mr. John Lennon … I know that you would want me to continue to express the same feelings as he has in his life.”
Paul McCartney received criticism for his reaction to John Lennon’s death
Paul McCartney was one of the people who knew Lennon best, and he received much criticism for his reaction to his death.
“I was very shocked, you know,” he said. “It’s terrible news … Drag, isn’t it?”
People perceived his tone as flippant, which didn’t seem respectful in the wake of Lennon’s death. McCartney explained that he was in shock and didn’t know how to respond.
“I was probably more shattered than most people when John died,” he told Good Morning Britain in 1985. “And I had plenty of sort of personal grief. But I’m not very good at kind of public grief. So someone thrust a microphone into my face the day it happened and said, ‘What’s your comment?’ Now all the other pundits came out with great comments: ‘Well, John will be sorely missed.’… All I could muster was, ‘It’s a drag.’ And it was like … I couldn’t say anything else but that. I just couldn’t. Neither could George [Harrison], neither could Ringo [Starr]. Nobody came out with any big comments because he was too dear to us; it was just too much of a shock.”
Ronnie Spector stayed in bed after hearing about John Lennon’s death
When Ronnie Spector first met Lennon, he flirted with her, and the pair remained friendly over the years.
“I met him in the street years later,” she said. “He called my name: ‘Ronnie!’ and I turned around; it was so f***ing cool. When he called my name, everyone turned around and saw him (and recognized him), and he didn’t care. He got shot right after that.”
She explained that his death left her grief-stricken, but she felt connected to Lennon every time she recorded.
“When he was shot, I was so devastated, I stayed in bed for a week,” she said, adding, “I was in the studio when I heard; I just dropped the phone — it broke my heart. I always think of John Lennon every time I’m in the recording studio. I can’t help it. He’s my spirit talking to me, saying: ‘Don’t give up.'”
Keith Richards poured out a drink for John Lennon
The Rolling Stones and The Beatles allegedly had a feud, but Keith Richards was friends with Lennon. Like Petty, he didn’t think Lennon’s injuries were serious when he first heard about them.
“I was downtown on Fifth Avenue in New York,” he told The Guardian in 2000. “The first bit of news I got, I thought: ‘He’ll make it. It’s just a flesh wound.’ And then, later on, the news really came. He wasn’t just a mate of mine, he was a mate of everybody’s, really. He was a funny guy. And you realize that you’re stunned. You really don’t believe it. And you think, ‘God, why can’t I do anything about it?’ I got well drunk on it. And I had another one for John.”
