4 Times John Lennon Talked Smack About Other Musicians

The Beatles icon John Lennon wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. Unfortunately for a few musicians here and there through the years, he also wasn’t afraid to voice his ire for a few of his contemporaries in the music world. Let’s take a look at four times John Lennon had some choice words about other musicians!

1. Mick Jagger

John Lennon had an interesting relationship with The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger. The Beatles and The Stones had a bit of a rivalry in their heyday, and the two bands duked it out on the charts for years. 

Lennon was not a big fan of the singer, and had some choice words to say about him in an interview in which he used a homophobic slur to describe him. Lennon also said that Jagger was “jealous” and that he “resented” the notion that The Rolling Stones were revolutionaries.

2. Paul McCartney

When it comes to times that John Lennon had negative things to say about other musicians, fellow Beatle Paul McCartney got quite a few pummelings. Despite the fact that the two penned some of the greatest songs of the 20th century together, their relationship started to deteriorate in the late 1960s. The two wrote a few negative songs about one another during their solo careers. 

Specifically, Lennon wrote “How Do You Sleep?” about McCartney. That song features pretty direct lyrics like “How do you sleep at night? / You live with straights who tell you, you was king / Jump when your momma tell you anything / The only thing you done was yesterday.”

3. Frank Zappa

Lennon once compared himself and related to Frank Zappa, but he also had at least one negative thing to say about the fellow rock star. Lennon was a vocal non-fan of self-important displays on stage and in interviews, despite being a bit guilty of those shortcomings himself. He once said that he admired Zappa, but quickly called him a “f***in’ intellectual” in the same breath.

4. Bob Dylan

This one is a bit odd, considering that Lennon was very clearly inspired by Bob Dylan’s attention to songwriting. Rubber Soul is a pretty direct example of that. However, if the previous entries have proved anything, John Lennon had a habit of giving a compliment with one hand and an insult with the other.

In the late 1970s, Lennon criticized Dylan’s album Slow Train Coming. In his defense, a lot of people weren’t thrilled about the born-again Christian energy Dylan put into that album.

“The backing is mediocre,” said Lennon of the album. “The singing’s really pathetic, and the words were just embarrassing.”

Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

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