Nearly half a century after it was first recorded, a lost interview with John Lennon has resurfaced, offering a rare and deeply personal glimpse into the former Beatle’s turbulent life in 1975. The interview, conducted by a then-young London DJ named Nicky Horne, was recently unearthed from a forgotten box of reel-to-reel tapes in Horne’s basement—a fortuitous discovery made by his wife while cleaning up earlier this year, according to The Guardian and UNN.
At the heart of the recording is Lennon’s palpable anxiety over being surveilled by the US government. In the mid-1970s, Lennon was living in New York City, embroiled in a very public legal battle with the administration of President Richard Nixon. The US authorities, particularly the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, had placed Lennon under surveillance due to his outspoken anti-war activism and his association with radical protest movements. According to NPR, this scrutiny began in earnest after Lennon’s 1971 arrival in New York and was intensified by songs like "Gimme Some Truth" and "Give Peace a Chance," which didn’t exactly endear him to officials in Washington, D.C.
Lennon’s suspicions, as captured on tape, were not merely the stuff of celebrity paranoia. "I know the difference between a normal phone when I pick it up and when every time I pick it up there's a lot of noise," Lennon told Horne, convinced that his phone was being tapped. He described a pattern of harassment that extended beyond the telephone: "I'd open the door and there'd be guys standing across the street. I'd get in the car and they'd follow me in the car, not hiding. They wanted me to see I was being followed." He even noted, with a hint of dark humor, that there were always "a lot of repairs going on in the cellar" of his residence at the Dakota building, suggesting covert surveillance efforts.
At the time of the interview, Lennon was 34 and feeling the weight of his status as a political target. The Nixon administration had tried to deport him, and Lennon had responded by filing a lawsuit over the alleged illegal wiretapping and surveillance—a fight that would only end when Nixon resigned in 1974, finally clearing the way for Lennon to secure his green card. As Lennon put it, "[The administration] was coming at me one way or another; I mean, they were persecuting me."
The interview, which had been lost for decades and only partially aired in the past, is now being broadcast in full for the first time to mark what would have been Lennon’s 85th birthday. Horne, who was just 24 when he sat down with Lennon in Manhattan, described the rediscovered tape as “gold dust.” He recalled being nervous before the interview, only to be put at ease by Lennon’s warmth and hospitality. "Lennon calmed him down and even baked him chocolate chip cookies," Horne admitted, sharing a charming anecdote about accidentally spilling crumbs on Lennon’s pristine white shag carpet and desperately trying to clean them up before the singer noticed.
The conversation, however, was far from lighthearted throughout. Lennon candidly discussed the toll that constant surveillance and legal pressure had taken on him. "I was paranoid at the time. Who wouldn’t be?" he confessed. He also pointed out that he was not the only British rock star facing such difficulties. "People like Mick Jagger, Paul [McCartney], George [Harrison], they all have trouble getting in and out of the country," Lennon said, referencing the obstacles his former bandmates and friends encountered with US immigration. "Mick had to vanish up his own manhole to get Keith [Richards] and the rest of them on tour, even. He did a lot of behind-the-scenes work just to be allowed in."
Despite the stress and the sense of being hunted, Lennon’s softer, more self-critical side emerged during the interview. He spoke about his solo album Walls and Bridges, which he had recorded during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono. The album, which later went gold in the US, almost didn’t see the light of day. "I couldn't listen to it," Lennon confessed. "I thought, 'just throw it away.'" It was only after playing the recordings for friends and hearing their encouragement—"Hey, it's all right"—that he decided to release it. This moment of vulnerability, as reported by UNN and The Guardian, revealed a man who, despite his global fame, still wrestled with self-doubt and the desire for validation.
The interview also offers a window into Lennon’s daily life at the time. Far from the glitz and glamour one might expect, Lennon described a routine of "bedroom, studio, TV, evening walk, at home." The intimacy of the setting—Horne sitting cross-legged on Lennon’s carpet, sharing cookies—contrasted sharply with the ominous sense of being watched, a duality that defined much of Lennon’s post-Beatles existence.
Yet, amid the paranoia and political pressure, Lennon’s optimism for the future shone through. "I'll be around for another 60 years and doing it until I drop," he said wistfully, adding that only "acts of God" could stop him. Tragically, as history would have it, Lennon’s life was cut short just five years later, when he was shot and killed outside the Dakota in December 1980 at the age of 40.
The rediscovered interview, now restored and released to the public, captures the contradictions that made Lennon such a compelling figure: the peace-seeking icon who feared he was a target, the self-doubting artist who baked cookies for a nervous journalist, and the optimist who dreamed of decades more music. As the world listens to Lennon’s voice anew, the tape serves as both a historical artifact and a poignant reminder of the pressures faced by those who dare to challenge power.
In a fitting twist, the release of this interview coincides with renewed interest in The Beatles’ legacy, thanks to a recent Disney+ documentary chronicling the band’s first visit to the US in 1964. Featuring restored archival footage, the film offers a glimpse of the group’s early triumphs—an era before fame, politics, and paranoia would so deeply shape Lennon’s life.
For fans and historians alike, the lost Lennon interview is more than just a curiosity. It’s a rare, authentic snapshot of a complex man at a crossroads, struggling with external threats and internal doubts, but always striving—sometimes with humor, sometimes with hope—to make sense of it all.
