Edition 29 - John Lennon
This is a special to close out 2009 and enter 2010. American author Joe Niezgoda has writtena stunning, highly controversial new book claiming John Lennon made a pact with the Devil...]
This is a special to close out 2009 and enter 2010. American author Joe Niezgoda has writtena stunning, highly controversial new book claiming John Lennon made a pact with the Devil...]
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Across the UK, across continental North America, and around the world on the internet, by webcast and podcast. | |
My name is Howard Hughes, and this is The Unexplained. | |
Thank you again for returning to the show for the very nice emails that I've had lately about the show asking me to carry on and take this show through 2010 and try and build it. | |
Let me tell you honestly, I have plans afoot now that may well get this show back on radio, but I'm not sure about how it's all going. | |
My fingers, as we say in the UK, are tightly crossed, but who knows? | |
We might get it back on radio, but I make a promise to you, whatever platform this show ends up on, it will stay here on this website. | |
It will always be here for you to download and listen to as you have. | |
Now, I know I said that the last edition of The Unexplained was going to be the final one of 2009, but then I read about something that I thought I have got to cap off this year with this amazing story. | |
Now, you may not buy into anything that you're about to hear, but I think it will give you a great deal to think about. | |
It is the story of one of the world's great music icons, perhaps the biggest, John Lennon. | |
And a man who was a John Lennon is a John Lennon and Beatles fan, going right back to the early days of the Fab Four in Liverpool. | |
This guy is an American, lives in Philadelphia. | |
His name is Joe Nezgoda, and he's written a book called The Lennon Prophecy. | |
Now, the idea of this, and I don't want to spoil what you're about to hear, is that John Lennon, according to Joe, may have done some kind of deal, a Faustian pact, as they call it, with the devil, for success. | |
But everything has a downside, and there is a price to everything that you put out there. | |
So, if we bear in mind that everything has a price tag, what do you think the price tag for that may have been? | |
Possibly the ultimate slaying of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman on the 8th or 9th of December, 1980, depending on which side of the Atlantic you were then, and time zone differences. | |
It's a fascinating theory. | |
I think it would make a great documentary, a superb movie. | |
I thought, first of all, it was a work of fiction, but as you're about to hear, Joe Nezgoda believes that this is possibly fact based on not just what's in his head, but on research that he's done. | |
Now, before we get to Joe in Philadelphia, just to say that by the time you see this, we should have a PayPal link up on the site for you to make donations to the Unexplained. | |
I've been offered donations a lot. | |
We haven't been able to take them in, but in order for this work to continue, that would be wonderful. | |
If you think that the show has some value in your life, if you think it is worth a contribution, please make one. | |
I'm not asking you to do it, cajoling you to do it, but if you think that it's worth something, that would be great. | |
This is much better, I think, than charging per download. | |
I don't think that's a model on the internet that's ever going to work. | |
But the idea of donating money to a show that you think has value in your life, maybe that's a runner. | |
It would certainly help me because I am doing this on an absolute shoestring. | |
Modern technology allows you to do this, and all you have to input to it is your own ability, whatever that might be. | |
And then you can make it happen, but it all costs a certain amount of money, and that's where the donations come in. | |
So please go to the website, www.theunexplained.tv, and make, if you want to, whatever donation you think this show is worth. | |
I will mention this in the future, so I hope you'll forgive me for that, but we now have a PayPal link up. | |
Just to say, I send you my very best wishes for the holidays of 2009 and into 2010, and let's not hold it up any longer. | |
Let's get to Philadelphia, United States. | |
Just as cold as London is at the moment, I think. | |
Here's Joe Nezgoda, the man who's written this book, The Lennon Prophecy. | |
Joe, thank you for coming on. | |
Hi, Howard. | |
Thank you for having me on your show, and I'm very pleased to be with you today. | |
Well, listen, I'm very, very pleased because this show has been done at short notice. | |
I had completed my run of shows for 2009, but then I heard about your book, and I heard about the Lennon Prophecy and the stuff that you were saying, and I thought, bearing in mind it is 29 years, almost exactly, you know, give or take a couple of weeks since the shooting of Lennon. | |
It will be three decades next year. | |
It's a good idea that we do this right now and get it out there, because I think a lot of people in this country and in other places that hear this show, which is a lot of places, let me tell you, Joe, will be more than interested in what you have to say. | |
Now, I am not going to say that they will agree with what you say, but you're going to give them food for thought, I think. | |
Well, the thing is, I'm not trying to have anybody believe or disbelieve what I'm saying. | |
What I'm doing is trying to put some things down in a book and give everybody an opportunity to look at it, review it, and judge the facts for themselves. | |
Well, this is all I would hope to do and to stimulate conversation in this subject. | |
Well, this is good. | |
And before we get into it, my first thought about this when I heard about it was that it was a work of fiction. | |
I didn't think for one nanosecond that you actually think that this is a work of fact. | |
Well, the thing is, is it's a it can be viewed as a work of fiction because all it is is a theory. | |
But what I did was I pulled a bunch of things together, and there is so much information on the Beatles. | |
If you're going to do research on anybody, the Beatles is the group to do it on because there's been so much written about them through the years. | |
Now, the book is completely based in fact. | |
I did nothing. | |
You will not find one item in this book that was created. | |
Everything is documented, referenced to the people that were there, to the people that knew John Lennon and the Beatles. | |
I created nothing. | |
Right, let's get into that in a couple of minutes, Joe, because what I want to know first off, I've never heard of you before this, and I guess most of my listeners won't have heard of you. | |
They will after this. | |
What's your story? | |
Tell me about you. | |
My story is very simple. | |
I was just like millions of other fans, millions and millions of other fans around the world. | |
I was a young boy coming home on my school bus. | |
It was my birthday, February 7th, and a couple of young girls in front of me said, the Beatles are going to be on Ed Sullivan. | |
This is going back to 1964. | |
I didn't know what Beatles was, so I watched the show. | |
And I was, from that day forward, I was fascinated. | |
Now, my whole life was spent around the Beatles, looking at the Beatles, reading about the Beatles, listening to the Beatles, learning to play guitar like the Beatles, dressing like the Beatles. | |
I absolutely was infatuated with these guys. | |
This sounds like obsession. | |
Well, to some people over here, Joe, this is going to sound a little bit like obsession. | |
It's going to sound like not, you weren't just a fan, you were a fanatic. | |
In this country, there are fanatics and people that obsess. | |
Yeah, because we just enjoyed the music so much. | |
We had suddenly related to it so Closely. | |
And the thing is, everything, and for some reason, my lot in life, I look at it as a lot in life, that I was destined to write this book because anything and everything I've ever read about the Beatles, I kind of, you know, I kind of remembered. | |
I kept books, I kept news articles. | |
For whatever reason, I never really understood it. | |
But there was something magical and mystical about the boys from Liverpool that I just couldn't understand. | |
And it was that fascination that led me to the point of writing a book about the Beatles, specifically about John Lennon. | |
Could it not just have been that the Beatles were and continue to be, what with the release of the Xbox game about them and all the rest of it and the remastering of all their albums this last year? | |
That they are and were a global music phenomenon. | |
And something that big is going to seem to any ordinary person almost supernatural. | |
But that's as far as it goes. | |
You know, I wish it were that simple. | |
Here's the point. | |
The point is that there were a lot of great groups, Led, Zeppelin, Rolling Stones. | |
I liked all those. | |
I liked all that music. | |
I liked sports. | |
I liked all those things. | |
But there was something different about the Beatles. | |
And why I say there's something different about the Beatles, you and all your listeners are welcome. | |
Go on YouTube and type in the Beatles, Australia, 1964. | |
Now, in 1964, probably before 1964, no one in Australia had ever heard of the Beatles. | |
Who are the Beatles? | |
Nobody knew what that was. | |
Now, they appear on Ed Sullivan in February, March, April, May, June. | |
Less than four months later, they go down to Australia for their very first tour. | |
Now, what did they have? | |
One, maybe two hits? | |
Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say, oh, they had three hits on the radio. | |
When they showed up at their hotel, and you can look, there's actual footage. | |
The Beatles walk out on their balcony, and there are 400,000 fans screaming in the streets. | |
400,000. | |
Nothing before or nothing since has paralleled or come close. | |
Well, sure, I can tell you the story. | |
I can tell you the story there. | |
This was the beginning, wasn't it, of global phenomena. | |
We hadn't had that before. | |
We had very successful music acts in the U.S. like Buddy Holly, who had, you know, some success in the UK, we have to say, and were recognized arguably more at one point in the UK than they were in the U.S. Buddy Holly may be not the best example, but there are many other examples. | |
U.S. acts who did not cross over to the UK and vice versa. | |
But the media started to allow this because we were all starting to be more aware of each other as a planet. | |
So not surprising, really. | |
The Beatles go to America, go on Ed Sullivan, go down to Australia where the radio stations there are all linked with the UK and they've been playing, as we say in the UK, the backsides off their records for weeks before they arrived. | |
So no surprise, really, that they would be received like that? | |
Well, I guess maybe it wouldn't be a surprise, but 400,000 just to catch a glimpse of these guys. | |
I mean, it's not like 400,000 were fighting to go see their concert or to get in. | |
They're just fighting to see a glimpse of these guys. | |
It's very, very different from any other group. | |
Now, the Beatles paved a path for all groups of the Rolling Stones Let's, but no one ever had the reception that these guys did. | |
And then one of the things that was very curious about the Beatles is everywhere they went, people asked, why you? | |
Why are you different? | |
What's different about you? | |
How do you explain Beatle mania? | |
What are you doing differently? | |
They couldn't explain it themselves. | |
And are you saying that the Beatles phenomena, now I wasn't around at that time, and I'm kind of a generation later than all of this, so I'm picking it up secondhand. | |
But I do have the advantage of being from Liverpool, so I know people who know people who know people and I know most of the stories. | |
It's quite good to be from Liverpool because, you know, we still love the Beatles and we love the heritage and we won't have anything said about them. | |
But there were other phenomena, weren't there, before the Beatles. | |
Like, I can tell you stories because I've seen the newsreel footage over here about Bill Haley. | |
And you had this phenomenon there, too. | |
Bill Haley's song Rock Around the Clock was in the movie The Blackboard Jungle. | |
There were riots, near riots, at Bill Haley shows. | |
Thousands of people turned up. | |
Well, there were. | |
And even before that was, you know, Frank Sinatra, when he was a young man in the 40s, created a great sensation and girls would swoon. | |
But I'm just pointing out that it wasn't to the level and to the degree that the Beatles had impacted people. | |
That's all. | |
It's just, to me, it's something that's a little bit odd and unexplainable. | |
All right. | |
So where do we go from there? | |
Well, where we go from there was back when the Beatles were together, they were putting out album after album, which unbelievable hit after hit, incredible amount of volume of work. | |
And then all of a sudden, someone in the United States noticed something odd. | |
Clues and things that started to appear in Beatle records. | |
And it was like many, many millions of people were spinning records backwards, holding albums up in front of mirrors, trying to interpret, looking at things backwards, reading things backwards. | |
You know, what is that all about? | |
What's the source of all that? | |
And I was in on that. | |
I enjoyed it. | |
I turned the records backwards, listened for music and clues. | |
The Beatles themselves, John Lennon was given out clues. | |
Glass Onion, here's another clue for you all. | |
The Walrus was Paul. | |
So there was something actual based in fact going on here with these clues. | |
But wasn't it, and this is one interpretation that I've heard of this, and it may be wrong. | |
I mean, you can interpret the thing any way you like, I guess, that John heard about all this stuff. | |
The Beatles was such a huge phenomenon. | |
And John particularly was into all of this stuff. | |
He had a spiritual bent to him, even, I think, before George. | |
I think that's probably true. | |
There was always something unusual about this guy, partly, and we'll discuss this in a little while to do with his dysfunctional past. | |
But John heard this stuff was going on, and being a joker like the man was, played up to it. | |
Well, that may be, but the thing is, Glass Onion was written probably in 1967, 68, recorded in 1968. | |
No one knew about the clues and didn't start until 1969. | |
So who was he given that clue to? | |
All right, now. | |
It's really odd. | |
There's a break in the timeline. | |
So what are we seeing? | |
That's one clue with one example. | |
My problem is, is I've got hundreds documented in this book when linked together. | |
In fact, I was thinking about it today in preparation for the interview, and I was thinking that no one who's read the book has accused me of taking things out of context. | |
And there is a reason, because it's very difficult with Lenin's songs, like, for example, the clue, Stupid Bloody Tuesday. | |
In context, that song, it doesn't really mean much to the whole spirit of the song other than it's a clever play on words. | |
But I took these things from the songs, and I think when I put them in my book, I actually put them in context for the first time. | |
And now all of a sudden, we're starting to see a whole different story appear based on these clues. | |
Well, don't I remember? | |
Was it John or was it Paul? | |
Now, I've met Paul. | |
Maybe you've met Paul too. | |
I find Paul, apart from being a really nice guy, very, very level-headed. | |
It was either John or Paul who said in an interview some years later, when asked about the walrus, I am the walrus, what is that? | |
And it was either John or Paul who said, Has it got to mean something? | |
Right. | |
Well, the thing is, is that it's very simple, like the old explanation, keep it simple, stupid. | |
And so what they do is, I mean, it's just a matter of if you keep things or you give the people something very simple to chew on, well, then maybe that will disarm the public or disarm. | |
But they couldn't disarm it. | |
I mean, there's still a group, there is, it's hard to believe, and, you know, with all the clues that I've amassed and all the clues that were out there through all the years and hundreds of books written and documented on this stuff, there's still an occult following of people that believe Paul McCartney is dead. | |
Sure, absolutely. | |
You see it even on YouTube now, yeah. | |
Yeah, and there's people like me that are like, hey, you guys, you know, I understand these clues were originally interpreted to Paul McCartney, but when you point them at John Lennon, all of a sudden now they make sense for the first time, to me anyway. | |
They make sense. | |
And then the thing is that John's the one who died. | |
Let me ask you really hard. | |
True enough. | |
Let me ask you a really hard question here. | |
Get it out the way right now because people will email me with this question if I don't ask it to you, so I better do it myself. | |
Are you not just directing all of this at John? | |
And we'll get into, as I say, I keep saying this, but we'll get into this in a second. | |
There's so much to talk about. | |
Are you not just directing this at John because Paul is still alive? | |
And if you make claims like the ones that you are making about Paul, he may sue you. | |
Well, you know what? | |
The thing is, I get a lot of calls. | |
And if the clues were really about Paul McCartney, I would have written a book that way. | |
In my heart, I've never written a book before, and chances are I'll never write another book again. | |
Like I said, this was my destiny. | |
I mean, I don't know why I call it intuitive knowledge. | |
This book had to happen. | |
And it's not a subject that's easily swallowed by the public. | |
It's a difficult concept, difficult thing to accept. | |
And if it was about Paul McCartney, people ask me, did Paul do anything? | |
Did Paul sell his soul? | |
Was John the only one in the group? | |
And my answer is, you know, I didn't research in that area. | |
And the fact is, Paul McCartney is still kind of, quote unquote, playing the game. | |
He puts out a group, I'm writing this book. | |
I mean, this book was 15, 20 years in the making. | |
No one could be harder on themselves than I am. | |
I'm not happy about what I'm finding. | |
And then, like, I'm having doubts about, should I put this out? | |
Are people going to interpret me as a nut case? | |
But the fact of the matter is, I'm writing this book. | |
And in 1999, he comes out with an album called Run, Devil, Run. | |
I'm like, you got Run, Devil, Run of all things with the subject matter. | |
Then see, here's another one. | |
John Lennon early on was asked, why do you call yourselves Beatles with an A? | |
He said, quote, a little man came to me on a flaming pie. | |
He said, you will be called Beatles with an A. So now McCartney puts out an album called Flaming Pie. | |
And then another, if you go on, I just invite the, I'm kind of excited by this because it's interesting how this stuff still goes on today. | |
They released, number nine is hugely significant to the Beatles and specifically to John Lennon. | |
Sure, not just number nine dream, but, you know, there are a lot of number nine significance. | |
Number nine dream, one after nine o nine, Revolution 9. | |
He's born on the 9th. | |
He dies Tuesday the 9th in England time, five hours ahead in New York. | |
Tuesday the 9th, he dies. | |
And the Beatles released in the United States, they released their Beatles rock band and their re-release of all their master recordings on 09-09-09. | |
Yeah, somebody pointed that out to me a little while ago, and that seemed to me, I have to give you this, Joe, that seemed a little bit weird to me knowing about the significance of this number nine. | |
But look, there are strange rock and roll coincidences and phenomena around other artists, especially Buddy Holly. | |
We have to say that, you know, we've talked about him on this show before. | |
So could these not just be a chain of coincidences? | |
What we need to get into right now, I think, because we've delayed it enough, is principally and very pinpointedly, we have to get into what it is you are saying about John. | |
What did he do? | |
If it was one or two clues, okay, I'll give you that. | |
Okay, coincidence. | |
I'm not buying coincidence anymore, and I'm not buying synchronicity. | |
John Lennon said there are no such things as coincidence. | |
And I don't believe there are. | |
Things are meant to happen. | |
These clues are legitimate for a reason. | |
And all I did was put them together and form my own theory. | |
And it's up to the readers to form their own conclusions. | |
But I'm telling you, there's something sinister. | |
There's always been something sinister underlying these Beatles. | |
And I just wanted to find out what it was and spend the time that I thought I would need to get to the point where I am. | |
I thought maybe I'd get some peace out of this because I was so, like you say, the word obsessed by it. | |
I, you know, I'm happily married, wife with children. | |
I have a wonderful job, beautiful house that I live in. | |
I'm lucky. | |
I did everything as well as I could. | |
But there was always this Beetle thing just beneath the surface for me, too. | |
Hey, Joe, what does your wife and your family think about all this research that you do? | |
Do they think you're a little obsessive? | |
Well, they did to an extent, especially my brother. | |
I have a younger brother just a year younger than I am. | |
And he was a huge Beatle fan as I was. | |
And he looked at this too. | |
In fact, I got to be honest, it was his idea. | |
He says, Joe, there's too much coincidence. | |
There's too much here. | |
People, if you look at what I put down, if you go to the LennonProphecy.com, look at the blog, look at the clues that are offered. | |
There's just a few clues, a handful of clues. | |
You can't get into too much detail unless it's like the book. | |
I don't mean to be cryptic or evasive, but it is a difficult subject, and there are some things that really require some study on the reader's part. | |
But they're the ones that encouraged me to write the book. | |
And even my brother, it was his idea. | |
He said, Joe, this is just too good to not let people. | |
It's too good of a story. | |
I mean, it's a current-day Dr. Faust. | |
It's a current day. | |
All right, which brings us to the point. | |
What you are saying, if I haven't got it completely wrong, and I haven't read the book, but I've read a lot about the book, what you're saying is that John Lennon, at some point in those early days in Liverpool, made a pact with the devil for success, yeah? | |
That's what I'm saying. | |
How could that happen, though? | |
That sounds crazy. | |
How could that happen? | |
Well, I guess it could happen because it's well documented in literature and history. | |
You know, if you don't believe in good and you don't believe in evil, if you don't believe in God and Satan, it might not make much sense. | |
But what will make sense is that this book was originally started, had nothing to do with Satanism, had nothing to do with Satan, had nothing to do with PACs. | |
It had to do with the guy that had, there were these clues that was murdered. | |
And these clues were pointing in that direction. | |
It was a book of prophecy. | |
Everything about John Lennon's death, the day, the hour, the who, where, what, when, why, were all answered in the songs. | |
Well documented. | |
Every aspect of that murder was documented. | |
It was prophesied in their music and in John Lennon's lyrics. | |
Now, the difference is that when I did my research, it started to point in a satanic direction, a vision of a view of Satan's power in this world and Satan's influence over mankind in the world. | |
What was it that made you think that? | |
Well, what had happened was early on when I was in this research, I'm doing that, things started to surface that really kind of like even creeped me out. | |
These clues were coming from somewhere. | |
John Lennon, unless he was a prophet himself, and I don't even think that he was responsible for some of these clues, and I'll give you an example. | |
A real example that came to me early on. | |
There's a Magical Mystery Tour came out in 1967. | |
In Magical Mystery Tour, in the United States version, I'm not sure about what's in the England, there's a booklet inside which documents the pictures of the movie and little comments and things. | |
And there's a picture of John Lennon walking out of a ticket agency. | |
And in the background of the picture, which was taken in 1967, 13 years before he died, with a sign that says, the best way to go is by MDC. | |
Prophetic, very prophetic. | |
Well, since his killer was Mark David Chapman. | |
Absolutely. | |
And it doesn't say have a sunny trip with MDC. | |
It says the best way to go is by M, D, and C. Now, I know people have contacted me from England and said, oh, M and D coaches. | |
That's a very blah, blah, blah. | |
I get that. | |
But it doesn't say M and D coaches. | |
If you look at the picture, it's cropped off to say the best way to go is by MDC. | |
It's very odd. | |
And that was the very first clue that really made me think that there was something more than something sinister about this whole thing, something other than, you know, just dumb luck, coincidence, or somebody playing a game with the public. | |
Well, listen, lots of things were said by John, done and said around John for years. | |
I remember the thing that chilled the hell out of me. | |
And I have to tell you, Joe, something I haven't told you yet. | |
I was a boy trainee broadcaster on air doing news in Liverpool on the day that John Lennon was shot. | |
So I was part of this story all those years ago. | |
So I just want to lay my cards on the table here. | |
Not only am I from Liverpool, I was part of this story. | |
John said a lot of things like that archive interview that has played a lot. | |
He talked about Gandhi and a lot of people, Martin Luther King, and he said they all ended up getting shot. | |
What a prophecy that was. | |
It's not. | |
He was fascinated with guns and revolvers. | |
I'm going by what people who live with him wrote and talked about. | |
Freddie Seaman wrote a book about John Lennon. | |
He was a personal assistant. | |
This guy, Jack Jones, wrote a book when he was interviewed Mark David Chapman. | |
The stuff is documented, but John definitely had a fascination with guns. | |
I mean, they named one of their albums, Revolver, which turned out to be a fatal clue in itself because he was murdered with a revolver. | |
Well, is that stretching a small point a long way? | |
I wonder. | |
My audience will tell me about that, Joe. | |
But it's a big stretch. | |
What I'm saying is, it's a big, big stretch. | |
I don't doubt there are strange coincidences around rock star deaths. | |
There are lots of them. | |
For example, Mark Bolan, great rock hero, died in a car crash and was wearing a badge. | |
He was a buddy holly fanatic, and the badge said, every day is a holly day. | |
Now, you know, that's maybe just coincidence, or maybe there's something more in it. | |
I'm not sure. | |
And my jury will always be up. | |
But let me tell you this. | |
It is a big step to go from pinpointing all these weird coincidences around John. | |
And I know there were. | |
There will always be, and there will probably be more unearthed as people research even more. | |
But what a big leap to take to say that John had made some kind of deal with the devil that involved them becoming really famous, if this is reading right of the book, them becoming really famous and ultimately him having to die. | |
Well, let me tell you something about John Lennon. | |
One of the things that has to happen in a pact is you have to do blasphemies. | |
Now, again, this is not just my interpretation of what a blasphemy is. | |
Read it. | |
It's well documented about pacts in history, Dr. Faust, Pope Sylvester. | |
These things are, there's certain things that are prescribed. | |
Now, when you make a comment to me about John Lennon and his words, well, then I just will turn to John Lennon's words, for example. | |
In the song he wrote, and these things are documented in 1974. | |
He wrote a song called Scared, in which he maybe turned to Christianity for help. | |
And he mentions in there, you know, I'm scared, I'm scared. | |
Every day of my life, I just manage and try to stay alive. | |
I just want to stay alive. | |
And now, and then 20 years after he died, his wife released an album, re-released some of his materials, his demo materials. | |
And then in this song, he wrote, it was never released when he was alive, but it was recorded probably just months before he died. | |
And the song is called Help Me to Help Myself. | |
And he says, well, I've tried so hard to stay alive, but the angel of destruction keeps on hounding me all around. | |
Lord help me. | |
Lord help me. | |
Please, Lord, help me. | |
It doesn't sound like the same guy that was singing about there ain't no Jesus going to come from the sky and imagine there's no heaven or hell. | |
Things changed. | |
Something happened near the end of his life. | |
But isn't it strange, Joe, that there's a disc jockey in the UK, he's still on a very good guy called Andy Peebles, who did the last radio interview with John Lennon, and it was broadcast by the BBC shortly after his death. | |
I have it on tape. | |
And I've played it many, many times over the years. | |
Recently, we discovered it and played it one more time. | |
John, on moving to New York and feeling comfortable at the age of 40 there with Yoko in the Dakota building in New York City and all the rest of it, said that he actually felt safe there. | |
He wasn't scared by the sounds of it, not in that interview. | |
Well, I think this is part of the whole thing with these packs, the way they work, and my interpretation, the way they're documented, excuse me, the way they're documented in history. | |
The people, the thing is, like, if you read some of the, in the book, it's amazing the way these songs and the lyrics, because of the number nine. | |
And I refer back to the fact that he died on Monday the 8th. | |
And I think maybe the fact that he was a continent, a half a world away, maybe he did feel some security. | |
And maybe there was some kind of a trick that took Place because in the United States it was Monday the 8th, and he was rushing to get home. | |
They asked him, Do you want to at that night? | |
He was in a recording studio, do you want to go out and get a bite to eat? | |
No, no, I want to go home. | |
I'm going to go home. | |
And the limo took him home. | |
He was on his way home. | |
And he was walking into his apartment at the Dakota, New York City, when he was shot. | |
He wanted to get home. | |
And the fact, the thing is, is that in England it was five hours ahead, so it was already stupid bloody Tuesday. | |
Very eloquent way of describing that day. | |
Stupid Bloody Tuesday, number nine, number nine, December the 9th. | |
Okay, which is an amazing set of coincidences, but coincidences. | |
I warn you with that word because if it was just one or two items, I would say it's a coincidence. | |
Maybe it could be viewed as that. | |
But this goes on and on and on. | |
Trust me, if you read the book, people that would read this book would be fascinated by it. | |
It's just amazing. | |
You're preaching in a lot of ways to the converted. | |
I'm fascinated by what you're saying. | |
And I know that in people's lives, you don't have to be a rock star. | |
In people whose lives I have known, people who've perhaps passed on, sometimes they not only predict their own future, whether they bring it on themselves or what, but there are coincidences around even ordinary people. | |
But what I'm fascinated by is that you are saying that this is a process that began, if I read it right, in Liverpool with John wanting fame, wanting success, wanting to transcend that very dysfunctional childhood that's told about in the movie Nowhere Boy that's out now, and making some kind of deal with something not very nice to get all of those things, but everything has a price tag, yeah? | |
Right. | |
Well, the thing is, if you look at John Lennon's life, I mean, my goodness, his mother, his father had left him at an early age, and it was a very traumatic separation, and it's a well-documented how that happened, where he was given the choice to choose as a young boy. | |
Horrible situation. | |
He just got close to his mother. | |
His mother was tragically killed by an off-duty cop who accidentally ran her over, killed her. | |
So he lost his mother at an early age. | |
He had no job. | |
He had no money. | |
He was failing out of school. | |
He had nowhere to live. | |
His band has just broke up. | |
They were deported from Germany. | |
This poor guy had very little to go on. | |
And in fact, it was interesting because I had the honor of talking with Bill Harry, who was there with John. | |
And he described the situation as it was portrayed by so many people through history that he was a fairly desperate character at that time. | |
He was very hurt by what had happened to him and his life. | |
And he had nowhere to turn. | |
And so this is what I'm saying. | |
Maybe it was this act of desperation on his part to make something more of his life. | |
He said it again and again that, you know, if we have to do whatever I have to do or how I have to bend things to get what I need, I'm going to do it, whatever it takes. | |
I hesitate to use this phrase, but I'm going to anyway. | |
What is the greatest piece of evidence, the smoking gun, if you'll pardon the expression, especially in this context, that leads you to believe that he did do some kind of deal? | |
It's one thing to surmise it, and it's another thing to have evidence for it. | |
Right. | |
Well, one thing in particular that comes to mind, and there is no one single great clue, but there was always something sinister and talking about with the Beatles. | |
There was something sinister about the death of Paul, the death and the death clues, number nine, turn me on dead man. | |
There was always something. | |
And what really bothered me and still bothers me to this day is the Beatles Yesterday and Today album. | |
Now, again, I go back, and when I did my research, I went back to articles and publications that were done back in 1966 when the Beatles Yesterday and Today album came out. | |
Now, when that album first came out, it was very odd, very disturbing album cover of the Beatles sitting with butcher smocks on with chunks of raw meat, decapitated dolls and baby parts, laying arms, torsos, laying all over them. | |
And in America, that was never released here in that form, and it was withdrawn in the U.S., wasn't it? | |
It was released, preliminarily released in the United States and withdrawn. | |
I guess there were 750,000 copies printed, but it was pulled. | |
And the reason it was pulled, there was such an outrage by this picture and this image of the Beatles. | |
And now, people will say, oh, it's your interpretation. | |
Well, you know what? | |
I'm not interpreting anything. | |
I'm just going to relay some of the things that I read back in the newspapers. | |
People were calling it infanticide. | |
And this isn't my interpretation. | |
If you read about Satan worship, one of the highest forms of Satan worship is infanticide. | |
That's the sacrificing and mutilation of young babies. | |
That right there is an example of what people in the public perceived as infanticide. | |
Do you not think this was just John, who, as we say, is a guy who was serious? | |
He was a wordsmith, but he was also a bit of a joker at times from what I hear. | |
He was just wanting to goad his audience. | |
Maybe that might be the case, and that's some of what people write to me. | |
I get a lot of great letters from people, sincere in their plight to understand. | |
There's a lot of sincerity in this. | |
There's a lot better ways to do it than that. | |
If John wanted to be clever and prove a point, there's a lot better ways. | |
But that, like I say, is a perfect example of infanticide, which is a form of giving the devil his dues. | |
Mark David Chapman, the man who killed Lennon, of course, he's had many attempts over the years to get out of jail, and he's not getting out anytime soon. | |
They're always refused, aren't they? | |
I think there was one only this last year gone. | |
Mark David Chapman, though, are you saying that if this theory that John Lennon did a pact with the devil, made a pact with the devil to get success and the price being that eventually he would be killed for it, that Mark David Chapman was some kind of Manchurian candidate who didn't even know what he was being deputed to do, but he had his part in history, and in his own deranged way, he was used by some force to carry out this act. | |
Well, I couldn't put it any better than what you just did yourself right there. | |
And that's exactly the way I would interpret this whole thing with Mark David Chapman. | |
And I'm reluctant to even say the name Mark David Chapman, or it was very brave of me, if you will, to even include Mark David Chapman in my book. | |
Us Beatle fans, many Beatle fans in the United States, do not want to give him any dues for what he had done or give him any attention. | |
So they referred to him as the man who shall remain nameless. | |
And I wish I could have written this book without including him, but he's an intricate part of the story. | |
He is just as much a part, he led a parallel life with John Lennon leading to that moment that they met, that fateful Meeting in front of the Dakota building. | |
Mark David Chapman opened doors that should never have been opened. | |
We all have evil thoughts. | |
We all have things in our lives that we're not proud of. | |
But what we do is we don't manifest them or nurture them like he did. | |
He opened doors he wanted to kill. | |
He became obsessed with killing John Lennon. | |
And he actually prayed to Satan for strength, invoked the name of Satan to give him the power to carry out this hateful act. | |
But it's one thing, isn't it, to say that it belongs. | |
It's one thing to say that, as most of the media agreed, and most people agreed at the time, or probably now, that Mark David Chapman was a crazy man who needed help. | |
But you're saying that there's a whole equation here that John is a part of. | |
He's not just an innocent victim here. | |
Well, the thing is, if people want to interpret John Lennon's murder as a senseless act by a deranged fan, well, then you do that. | |
But I think there's something far more sinister here. | |
Now, Mark David Chapman attempted suicide, and he was spared that act, that heinous, sinful act. | |
He was spared. | |
His life was spared. | |
He did not successfully commit suicide. | |
So now, he lives on to go on to obsess about kill John Lennon. | |
Now, that day, I don't know if you read, if anyone's read about Mark and his account of the story. | |
He stood there and heard voices that told him, do it, do it, do it. | |
He's mine, he's mine. | |
Now, whether you believe in Satan or I believe in Satan or possession, Mark David Chapman believed he was possessed because he, in fact, did have an exorcism performed on him at Attica State Prison where he claims demons left his body. | |
And people that knew him said that it appeared that these demons had left his body. | |
So he was actually possessed. | |
But of course, many people would say it doesn't matter. | |
Mark David Chapman believed it. | |
Let's get it back to John then. | |
Let's get it back to those early days in Liverpool. | |
A fascinating time. | |
A wonderful time, really. | |
Everybody was in a rock band. | |
A lot of those old guys are still around now. | |
And if you weren't in a rock band, then you were probably related to somebody who was, or you knew somebody who was, or you were, you know, in school, in your class, there was somebody who was in a rock band. | |
Just everybody was doing it. | |
You know, I was a tiny little boy, and my sister was older than me, and she was kind of a part of all of this stuff. | |
But there were lots of people in that situation, but only one John Lennon making a deal with the devil to be successful, right? | |
Is that what you're saying? | |
Like I said, it will never, I do not have a contract sign in blood. | |
I do not know. | |
People need proof. | |
I can only offer the clues and the information and the things that I've quoted from people as my documentation and my proof. | |
But why, John Lennon? | |
I don't know. | |
It's a mystery that we may never solve. | |
It's like trying to describe magic. | |
How do you describe magic? | |
Have you had any reaction from anybody connected with The Beatle, the remains of Apple, surviving Beatles, Yoko Ono? | |
Any reaction from them about the book? | |
Well, the thing is, is not directly, but indirectly, and again, maybe I'm reading into things and people have pointed things out to me. | |
You know, like for a good example would be when the press release for this book came out for the very first time, within three days, there was an article that was released from the Vatican that said John Lennon was forgiven for his offhanded clips about being more popular than Jesus, which I can't understand. | |
The Vatican, John Lennon wasn't Catholic or anything. | |
What does the Vatican have to do with John Lennon and offhanded clips about being more popular than Jesus? | |
I found that very odd. | |
And then the thing is, like I said, what I find odd is that these things with Paul McCartney are still, you know, it seems to be still surfacing. | |
If you go on the website, the Lennon Prophecy, and then you look at the blog, you're going to see a recent picture of Paul McCartney. | |
It was a photograph, a recent photograph of McCartney. | |
It's featured on his latest video release. | |
And I mean, it's just strikingly similar in color and composition to a picture that was taken of John Lennon at Shea Stadium. | |
Just incredible, the similarities. | |
And I say, if you read about it, it's kind of complicated. | |
I don't mean to be evasive. | |
But if you read about it, you'll see what I'm talking about. | |
It's amazing. | |
There seems to be this thing still going on. | |
But no, I haven't heard directly from anyone regarding this. | |
Joe, how do you square this, though? | |
My thoughts about John, he's been a huge influence in my life. | |
I do revere the guy. | |
I'd say he's been one of the biggest influences in my life. | |
He was completely, as far as we were all aware in the media, committed to peace. | |
That's what he wanted. | |
He wanted peace. | |
And he said it many, many times. | |
Not only did he spend, what was it, a week in a hotel bed in Amsterdam with Yoko trying to promote peace. | |
That's what the guy lived for. | |
But you're saying that a man who wanted to promote peace all his knowledgeable adult life also had a dark side that we didn't know about. | |
Well, the thing is, that's absolutely correct. | |
People leave double lives all the time in this world. | |
I can't explain. | |
The whole thing with peace is, you know, if it was maybe an attempt to rectify things, maybe straighten things out in his life. | |
Unfortunately, I mean, again, this isn't my interpretation. | |
It's just the way it is. | |
In the Catholic Church, blasphemy is the only unforgivable sin. | |
You cannot be forgiven for blasphemy. | |
I mean, it's documented in text. | |
So, I mean, maybe this was an attempt to rectify or straighten things out or fix things, things that maybe couldn't be fixed. | |
Like I say, Chapman opened doors. | |
Maybe John opened doors that couldn't be closed as well. | |
I think you've written a fascinating book, and I think it would make a great play or TV movie or something like that if anybody's brave enough to do it. | |
That's a key point about the brave part, because, again, this is not what I would consider mainstream, and I didn't expect... | |
Or maybe it might be a type of thing that maybe people can judge for themselves in their own lives and try to make sense. | |
But you're going to get a lot of stuff thrown at you. | |
I mean, look how successful Dan Brown has been with the Da Vinci Code, a pure work of fiction with a lot of research at the back of it. | |
There are going to be people saying to you, well, you've just come up with this thing. | |
You've cooked it all up in a great big pot. | |
What you're looking for is for someone to do a movie deal with you, and once you do that, you're going to go away happy. | |
Mission accomplishments. | |
Let me tell you something. | |
Like I said, I worked hard my whole life. | |
I have multiple degrees. | |
I sowetted in the library earning my degrees, And I worked really hard my whole life. | |
I never asked anybody for anything. | |
I did it all on my own. | |
And my wife and I eked an existence together. | |
And like I said, we're raising a lovely family. | |
I didn't have to do this book for anything. | |
And chances are, if there's money involved, well, that's one of the aspects of anybody who's in the business. | |
I'm not in the business. | |
I didn't intend to get rich or do anything off of this. | |
I did it because I, like I said, I just felt I had no choice. | |
It was my destiny. | |
Some people might call it a calling. | |
This book was my calling. | |
It had to be done. | |
And in 15 years of writing it, people would say to me, family members would say, aren't you afraid somebody's going to steal this idea? | |
You're taking so long. | |
Why are you waiting to publish this thing? | |
Well, do you know why somebody didn't steal it beforehand, Joe? | |
Maybe because the thing is going to be seen and is being seen, isn't it, as so off the wall that nobody else would dare, and we come back to the bravery thing, would dare to do it. | |
Well, the thing is, there's a lot of people. | |
Am I the only brave one in the world? | |
Am I the only one that publishes garbage or crap, how that might be interpreted? | |
I don't think so. | |
The thing is, is that, like I said, this book, if you read the book, I do not insult anyone. | |
I do not challenge John's existence or his beliefs. | |
I was very careful in the way I put this book together and worked very closely with my publisher and my editor to make this a very fair presentation. | |
It's, you know, like people kind of equate it to, you know, to different books that were written about John Lennon. | |
What's his name? | |
Albert Goldman, the way he wrote his book. | |
You're not going to find that in here. | |
This isn't a story about demonic possession, spinning heads, babies levitating out of their cribs. | |
This is a story of good and evil, an internal battle that rages within one individual. | |
Are you saying? | |
Okay, are you saying, Joe, that John in Liverpool, very conflicted individual, a guy who wants success, is desperate, has so many things that are wrong in his life? | |
And at that time, lots of people were in that situation in Liverpool, the legacy of the war that left families fragmented, all kinds of stuff going on. | |
But there's John wanting to do this thing. | |
He does a deal with the devil for success. | |
Are you saying that because their fame exploded so quickly? | |
And this all started in Liverpool, but it erupted around the world very, very quickly. | |
Even in terms of today's fame structure, it was a pretty quick thing. | |
Are you saying that there is one specific point back in history where there is a connection that is such a big leap, you can't work out how they were able to do so much so fast? | |
I know you told me about the Australia trip and how to you that didn't add up. | |
But is there something back there in Liverpool? | |
Well, the thing is, is that these pacts are supposedly took place, they're 20-year packs. | |
Depends on how you cut the deal. | |
And I mean, one of the things that was a McCartney song, I understand, but John influenced him. | |
You know, the line, it was 20 years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. | |
So it's kind of like a 20-year pact. | |
If you want to look at it that way, and that particular line is interesting, like, who's Sergeant Pepper and what did he teach him how to play? | |
Now, if you go back 20 years, and again, it's interesting, and I'm in a very good position in as much as people will say, you know, they might judge me as saying, oh, you're doing reverse engineering. | |
Anybody can do that. | |
You got the answer. | |
Now ask the question. | |
Well, so, okay, so what? | |
I did do that. | |
And I was curious as to what happened 20 years earlier. | |
Well, one of the things that happened, the Beatles were in, let me see where it's, they had a performance in December 27th, 1960, which would be almost 20 years to the day that John Lennon would die, in Litherland, England. | |
Now, in Litherland, they took the stage that night, and again, it was nothing anything different than just the regular fans, what appeared to be the regular turnout, a good number of people. | |
But something happened that very night. | |
Beatle Mania took a life of its own. | |
Inexplicably, the Beatles themselves can't explain it, and they commented on that very night. | |
All four of them commented. | |
Pete Best commented on that night. | |
He commented, after that night, we never looked back. | |
Because Pete Best was the drummer. | |
Wasn't Pete Best the guy they got rid of? | |
Pete Best was the drummer that they eventually got rid of. | |
And on that night, the fans didn't dance. | |
They turned, the Beatles took the stage, and something so magnetic drove those people to the stage, screaming, yelling. | |
It was the birth of Beatlemania. | |
That was the first inkling of Beatlemania. | |
And I mean, it was a turning point for the Beatles, and it's documented in many books. | |
Many books. | |
I mean, it's this one book by Lewison guy. | |
He documented the Beatles' lives by the day, and this was a big turning point for them. | |
Well, listen, I was born two miles away from Liverland Town Hall where this event happened, and people are still talking about it there in Liverland and in Waterloo, not very far away. | |
So I know a bit about this. | |
And it seems to me from the accounts that I've heard about this, and I've got older relatives who were in fact part of this thing, okay? | |
That there was a critical mass building in Liverpool with not only the Beatles, but with other acts. | |
And there were so many The Undertakers and Farrons Flamingos, and there are way too many to name now, and a lot of them have been forgotten. | |
There was a critical mass being reached in Liverpool, but something, as you rightly say, at that gig happened. | |
I know. | |
It's just amazing, isn't it? | |
I just tell you, I can't explain it. | |
And I think a lot of people would share that. | |
And it's always been a thought. | |
I have to give you this, Joe. | |
It's always been a thought in the back of my mind. | |
I love Liverpool, and I wish I had been older so that I could have experienced more of this. | |
You know, I wouldn't like to be as old as I would be now, but you know what I'm saying? | |
But like, for example, my uncle Charlie was a carpenter for one of the shipping companies in Liverpool, and he told great stories about how literally tens of thousands of people turned out to see the Beatles return to Liverpool and stand at the balcony of Liverpool City Hall, right in the center of Liverpool. | |
In fact, they had for a while models, figures of the Beatles up there very, very recently. | |
I've been working there and used to pass them every day. | |
Something huge happened around them, and there were other people who would tell you now, today, that they were as talented, maybe more talented than the Beatles, but it didn't happen for them in that way. | |
Now, there are two ways to look at that. | |
If I was Joe, one, that's just incredible good fortune. | |
Two, there was some other factor at work, and you're saying there's some other factor at work, yeah? | |
Well, the thing is, and it's interesting how it's almost like the posture of my interview with you, And through no fault of yours, it seems like I'm almost like on the defensive trying to defend myself or defend the story. | |
Yoshi, well, what I'm trying to do is, because I'm going to get emails from people saying, why have you put that guy on? | |
And I believe you have a place on this show, that's why you're here. | |
And I find what you're saying fascinating. | |
That's the other reason you're here. | |
But I think it is important to make these points and for you to defend yourself because I will get the emails from listeners. | |
Well, I appreciate that. | |
But I just want people to say that I did not come on this show at your invitation to defend myself because I, like I said, I am familiar with you and I'm familiar with your work. | |
Just as you're sincere about the Beatles, so am I. I am very, just we all are. | |
We loved the Beatles. | |
When John Lennon died, we'll always remember where we were that moment in time when we heard the news. | |
It was a tragic story that will always be mournful of John's passing. | |
And I'm just the same way as you, and I mean, I don't live in Liverpool, but I know I was a young boy, and I'm grateful. | |
I talk to my friends, and like you almost, like you would describe it as obsessive behavior, you yourself kind of have that little bent towards obsessiveness. | |
Like, geez, I'd almost wish I was born earlier. | |
And same thing, you're not the only one that feels that way. | |
I was a young boy. | |
I was only seven. | |
I wasn't old enough to go to the concerts and stuff. | |
And I have friends of mine that I grew up with who are just as much Beatle fans as I am who have the same feelings. | |
Geez, it was great to be alive during that and see it and be a part of it. | |
I can't, you know what? | |
It doesn't, you know what? | |
Now that I think about it, it really doesn't even matter that you weren't at that time because there's just as many, if not more, Beatle fans now than there were back then. | |
Hey, Joe, have you been to? | |
Have you been to Liverpool? | |
I've never been. | |
Well, listen, you've got to go because it's interesting. | |
The rest of the country, they've moved on. | |
They remember the Beatles and they're being reminded by the reissue of the albums and the computer game that's out now and all the rest of it. | |
But in Liverpool, you would think that all four of them were still alive and still having hits because why? | |
Their faces are on the sides of buses. | |
There's a hotel there called the Eleanor Rigby Hotel. | |
It's a Beatles-themed hotel. | |
Liverpool will not forget, and quite likely so, because the Beatles put Liverpool on the map in a lot of ways. | |
So it's a part of my life. | |
But can you imagine, Joe, what it was like for me as a kid? | |
And I was a trainee broadcaster. | |
I wasn't even fully qualified at Radio City in Liverpool, the big commercial radio station. | |
And I remember getting up early that morning. | |
I was helping out on the Morning Drive news shift. | |
And I was in my bathroom, and I heard on the radio that John Lennon had been shot dead. | |
That thing cut me like a knife. | |
And then I thought my news editor was going to take me off the air that day because the news was so important. | |
I went into work and he let me read the news. | |
Can you imagine what that was like? | |
I can't because I know the way it impacted me. | |
I had never met John Lennon. | |
I didn't walk the streets that John Lennon walked, although I used to go to Dakota in the hopes of standing out front. | |
I was one of those people that just maybe would see him one day, but we never really had much luck at that. | |
My brother and I would do that. | |
So we did kind of look and saw and study the life of John Lennon. | |
But yeah, the impact on me, a guy who never knew John Lennon or knew of where he lived or how he lived, other than what I read and was hearsay from other people, had such an impact. | |
I can't imagine how Liverpool must have suffered and how they still continue to suffer. | |
One of the things you mentioned about like kind of the world in Liverpool, the rest of the country has moved on and Liverpool still kind of has their moments. | |
Well, you can't turn on a TV set without seeing the Beatles in the United States every day. | |
You can't turn a radio station on without hearing a Beatles song. | |
We're talking about a group that, for all practical intents and purposes, as far as the United States was concerned, existed from 64 to 1970. | |
Six years of Beatle years. | |
Six Beatle years. | |
And you can't turn a TV on without seeing something about the Beatles. | |
They still have Beetle Fests, which Mojo magazine, which I respect a great deal, they kind of panned the whole Beetle Fest thing because in the country, in the United States, they have what is called Beetle Fest, and they celebrate the music and the lives of the Beatles at these things. | |
One's in Los Angeles, one's in Chicago, and the one that I attend is in New York City. | |
And thousands of fans come out to celebrate the music and listen to the music and watch the movies and talk and meet the people that were there. | |
It's still very much alive and very much a part of the fabric of the United States today. | |
Joe, having come to the conclusions that you've come to, how do you feel about John now? | |
What do you think about him? | |
Well, I look at him differently. | |
I still, for whatever reason, like I said, that magnetism that affected you and affected me and affected millions of people is still alive today because we have people like my son, who's only 12 years old. | |
He's fascinated by this whole thing. | |
He's fascinated by the Beatles. | |
He still watches. | |
I still get that feeling. | |
It's like I'm going back in time. | |
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan when he's playing Help, when John Lennon's performing the song Help Vive, the way he looks, the way he's dressed, the music, I am just as fascinated today. | |
It's just as fresh and new to me today. | |
I can't explain it. | |
But I do look at him differently. | |
I do see something different, and I can't, I warn people when they go to the site, and it's not a joke. | |
People say, oh, this guy. | |
It's not a joke. | |
If you go to this and start to investigate it, I warn you, you'll never listen to Beatles songs the same way again. | |
Do you like him? | |
He was the only person. | |
It's a very tragic story because, I mean, like I say, I always loved my family and loved everybody, but John Lennon was different. | |
He had a different spot in my heart that I still struggle with. | |
I cannot come to grips with what I have found. | |
It's very disturbing. | |
And I don't really view him the way I used to because of, you know, because of everything that I've read and done. | |
And again, some of the stuff this book started out as probably a 600-page text, and my publisher and editor whittled it down to what it is today. | |
There's a lot of things that I didn't even share with people that I'm not even comfortable talking about. | |
Are you scared that we know that there are a lot of obsessive fans of every rock band, but the Beatles still have their obsessive fans? | |
And there are people who, I mean, I used to talk about Elvis Presley on the radio, and sometimes people would tell jokes about Elvis quite innocently, but I'd get phone calls from Elvis fans saying, let the king rest. | |
Are you afraid that you are going to get, once word gets out about this book around the world, which I would love it to and wanted to, want to help you do that, that you yourself will become some kind of target? | |
Well, the thing is, I did, my family and I did discuss that because, like I said, I am a father and I have a great deal of responsibility. | |
My parents are still alive, and if anything happened to me, I dare say they would be crushed. | |
And my brothers and sisters, yes, but the thing is, is that I don't know that I even had a choice in putting this book out. | |
And what I did was, to try to disarm people, is I wrote a very fair presentation. | |
I didn't do anything to slander anybody. | |
I'm not afraid of lawsuits or any of that. | |
That's not what this is about. | |
It's about a fan of the Beatles and John Lennon giving a fair and honest assessment of what he uncovered and what his opinion is. | |
That's all this book is. | |
It's not about slandering the name of John Lennon. | |
And if anything, it's elevating John to a new level. | |
You know, it's taking him to the level of Faust and Pope Sylvester in literature. | |
Of course, coming back to a point we made at the very beginning, we're going to have to wrap this up very soon. | |
I have to tell you, though, I found this fascinating. | |
But the fact of the matter is, certainly in English law, you cannot defame the dead. | |
You cannot libel a dead person. | |
So it's easy to do something about John Lennon in a way that it wouldn't be this easy to do something about somebody who's alive still. | |
Well, the thing is, is that, you know, like I said, I was in no hurry to put this book out. | |
It took me almost 15, 20 years to write this book. | |
And again, I said I'm not worried about lawsuits because anything I put in the book is documented, it's referenced, it's quoted. | |
I'm not trying to defane or blaspheme anybody or, you know, put a bad spin on people. | |
These are facts that I put together that are facts that can't be disputed. | |
They're there in the book. | |
And like I said, I just invite people to really try, if they really want to understand this, get the book, read it, and judge for yourself. | |
Is it out in the UK? | |
Do you know? | |
I think it is through Amazon's, Amazon UK site, Amazon, yeah, it can be. | |
I believe it Amazon site. | |
And if people want to know more about you, Joe, which I'm sure they will once they've heard this, how do they decide? | |
Well, I invite everybody to go to thelennonprophecy.com. | |
And on there, you're going to find, because this is the way it is, like I said, I'm a little bit older myself, but Facebook is up. | |
We have a Facebook site. | |
We have a blog. | |
And one of the things I really invite fans and people, not just fans, but I invite people. | |
And believe me, the outpouring has been just unbelievable from people contacting me. | |
On the website, thelennonprophecy.com is a contact box. | |
Click on that, and the email goes directly to me. | |
I hold everything in confidence. | |
Nothing will be shared with anyone. | |
It's just an opportunity to talk to people. | |
And believe me, I do try to respond to as many as I can. | |
And I know that you wanted just to put out a well-researched story and theory within the story. | |
I have a feeling this thing is going to take on a life of its own in 2010, Joe, and it's going to be much bigger than perhaps even you thought it was. | |
That's just a prediction from me. | |
Let's see if that happens. | |
Well, I appreciate that. | |
And again, I thought maybe I, like I said, I kind of prepared my whole life for this. | |
And then if whatever comes of it comes of it. | |
But I'm here to support my theory and to talk to people. | |
I welcome comments. | |
I do not run from negativity. | |
If people don't agree with it, I can understand because I had trouble myself with the whole theory, coming to grips with someone that I absolutely worshipped in my life. | |
People are curious. | |
They want to know what happened. | |
John Lennon said it yourself. | |
The quotes are there. | |
If you're going to look, then you have to see. | |
Living is easy with eyes closed. | |
Misunderstanding all you see. | |
Let's open our eyes, people. | |
That's all I'm asking. | |
Let's open our eyes. | |
Joe Nezgoda, in the U.S., you may not agree with anything that you've just heard, but maybe it's given you cause for thought. | |
And if it's done that, then I've achieved my purpose in putting Joe out there. | |
I find it a fascinating theory. | |
I thought I knew all there was to know about John Lennon, his life and times, and now I've gone away thinking. | |
Maybe that's what this is all about. | |
But I think it would make a great documentary. | |
And possibly if anybody's brave enough to make it a fantastic movie. | |
Jonas Goda is the man, and it is called The Lennon Prophecy. | |
Check him out online and tell me what you think. | |
If you want to make contact with this show, go to our website, www.theunexplained.tv, and send me an email through the site. | |
Or if you need to, you can contact me direct at unexplainedh at yahoo.co.uk. | |
That's unexplainedh at yahoo.co.uk. | |
Thank you to Martin for the fantastic theme tune that will continue into 2010. | |
Martin, thank you again, and I wish you well across the holidays. | |
Adam Cornwell, a hero, a star, and if you want to know more about Adam's work, he has an organization that he's launching called Creative Hotspot, which is a production and web organization. | |
Check them out online. | |
Adam Cornwell, I believe, is a real talent, and 2010 will be a great year for him. | |
I wish you warmth. | |
I wish you happiness wherever you are in this world, and I will see you very soon here on The Unexplained. |