John Lennon Said He and George Harrison Weren’t as ‘Stable’ as the Other Beatles
In the early 1960s, John Lennon and George Harrison inadvertently took LSD for the first time. While they were disturbed to learn that they had taken a substance without their knowledge, they enjoyed the drug. They both began taking it frequently, but their bandmates Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney weren’t as sold on it. According to Lennon, this made them more stable than himself and Harrison.
John Lennon and George Harrison tried LSD for the first time together
In 1965, Harrison and Lennon were having dinner at their dentist’s house when their host served coffee. Unbeknownst to them, the sugar cubes in the coffee were laced with LSD. Lennon was angry about this, but Harrison wasn’t sure what it meant. Along with their wives, they left the house and went to the Ad Lib Club.
“When we went to the club we thought it was on fire and then we thought it was a premiere, and it was just an ordinary light outside,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1971. “We thought, ‘S***, what’s going on here?’ We were cackling in the streets, and people were shouting ‘Let’s break a window,’ you know, it was just insane. We were just out of our heads.”
Lennon said the night was both horrifying and exhilarating.
“God, it was just terrifying, but it was fantastic,” he said. “I did some drawings at the time, I’ve got them somewhere, of four faces saying ‘We all agree with you!’ I gave them to Ringo, the originals. I did a lot of drawing that night. And then George’s house seemed to be just like a big submarine, I was driving it, they all went to bed, I was carrying on in it, it seemed to float above his wall which was 18 foot and I was driving it.”
John Lennon said the drug had an impact on himself and George Harrison
While all the members of The Beatles eventually tried LSD, Lennon said that he and Harrison used it the most.
“George [used it],” Lennon said. “In L.A. the second time we took it, Paul felt very out of it, because we are all a bit slightly cruel, sort of ‘we’re taking it, and you’re not.’ But we kept seeing him, you know. We couldn’t eat our food, I just couldn’t manage it, just picking it up with our hands. There were all these people serving us in the house and we were knocking food on the floor and all of that. It was a long time before Paul took it.”
According to Lennon, this made McCartney and Starr more grounded than himself and Harrison.
“So, I think George was pretty heavy on it; we are probably the most cracked,” Lennon said. “Paul is a bit more stable than George and I.”
He believed that McCartney and Starr regretted taking the drugs and didn’t take nearly the same enjoyment out of it as he and Harrison.
“I think LSD profoundly shocked him, and Ringo,” he said. “I think maybe they regret it.”
He said that LSD helped him rebuild his confidence
Lennon said that he eventually had to take a break from LSD because he was having too many bad trips. He explained that in the period he wasn’t taking it, he had broken down his ego and no longer felt as confident in himself. When he began using the drug again, Lennon said that he regained his ego.
“The next week I went to Derek’s with Yoko and we tripped again, and she filled me completely to realize that I was me and that’s it’s all right,” he said. “That was it; I started fighting again, being a loudmouth again and saying, ‘I can do this, f*** it, this is what I want, you know, I want it and don’t put me down.’ I did this, so that’s where I am now.”
