Viajes: Londres a Chicago

John Lennon: If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it. You know, but as I just happened to be talking to a friend, I used the word ‘Beatles’ as a remote thing – not as what I think as Beatles – as those other Beatles like other people see us. I just said ‘they’ are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way. Yap yap. Q: Some teenagers have repeated your statements: ‘I like the Beatles more than Jesus Christ.’ What do you think about that?Lennon: Well, originally I was pointing out that fact in reference to England, that we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion, at that time. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down, I was just saying it as a fact. And it’s sort of… It is true, ‘specially more for England than here. I’m not saying that we’re better, or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is, you know. I just said what I said and it was wrong, or was taken wrong. And now it’s all this.Q: There have been threats against your life, there have been record burnings, you’ve been banned from some radio stations. Does this bother you?Lennon: Well, it worries me.Paul McCartney: You know, it’s bound to bother us.Q: Do you think you’re being crucified?Lennon: No, I wouldn’t say that at all.Q: What do you think about the record burnings here in the United States?McCartney: Well, I think it’s a bit silly. It seems a bit like a publicity stunt on their part, you know. I think they’re not going to gain anything by doing that.Lennon: If they just didn’t buy the records, or threw them away, but burning them is…George Harrison: It’s the same old wrong mess. They’ve just taken it the wrong way, and that’s just the pity that… It’s this misunderstanding which shouldn’t be.Q: Mr Starr, you haven’t said a word.Ringo Starr: Well, I just hope it’s all over now, you know. I hope everyone’s straightened out, and it’s finished.Q: Is this an attempt to raise your flagging popularity?Lennon: I could think of a much easier way…Q: Such as?Lennon: To raise flagging popularity. I don’t know, if you think of stunts. But we don’t do stunts. I think we’ve done one in our lives that’s been completely a stunt.McCartney: But anyway, that’s not the kind of thing that’s gonna…Q: Are you sorry you said it?Lennon: I am. Yes, you know. Even though I never meant what people think I meant by it. I’m still sorry I opened my mouth.Q: Did you mean that the Beatles are more popular than Christ?Lennon: When I was talking about it, it was very close and intimate with this person that I know who happens to be a reporter. And I was using expressions on things that I’d just read and derived about Christianity. Only, I was saying it in the simplest form that I know, which is the natural way I talk. But she took ’em, and people that know me took ’em exactly as it was, because they know that’s how I talk, you know.Q: It was quoted, a recent statement by you, that the Beatles were anxious for what they called the downfall – that is, the time when they would no longer be on top. Are you anxious for it?Lennon: Well, I don’t know what that is. No.McCartney: I don’t think that we ever said that.Harrison: If we were really anxious, we’d just do something to…McCartney: We’d do it, you know.Harrison: …end it.McCartney: That’s the thing. If we really wanted to get out.Lennon: People say, ‘Oh, they must’ve done it on purpose. They must have a reason,’ you know. But I made a mistake, and I opened me mouth, but there was no alterior motive in it, either way.