On This Day in 1966, John Lennon Sparked One of the Biggest Beatles Controversies of Their Career

The Beatles’ music and their ability to elicit intense emotional reactions from their audience go hand in hand when defining their cultural legacy, but one of the biggest controversies the band ever faced (thanks in no small part to John Lennon) had the potential to derail their career entirely by alienating their U.S. audience.

Videos by American Songwriter

Of course, in the end, not even the staunchest of American critics could hold back the massive tidal wave of Beatlemania that crashed into countries around the world throughout the 1960s.

John Lennon’s Words Came Back To Haunt Him In 1966

When Maureen Cleave first published her interview with John Lennon in the Evening Standard, few Brits batted an eyelash when reading the Beatle’s cheeky comments about the guitarist’s home life, the gorilla suit he bought for a band prank that only he participated in, and, of course, his dry commentary about the Beatles versus Jesus Christ. At a time when Lennon and the rest of the band were heavily investing in Eastern philosophy, practices, and perspectives, he waxed cynical about religion.

“Christianity will go,” he told Cleave. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right, and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” The London Evening Standard published the conversation on March 4, 1966.

Nearly five months later, on July 29, 1966, U.S. teen magazine Datebook republished Lennon’s comments, out of context, in a section that the publication titled, “The Ten Adults You Dig/Hate The Most.” American audiences had a much different reaction to Lennon joking about his band being more popular than Jesus. Seemingly overnight, the Beatles’ massive fan base in the United States began to fracture.

One Of The Beatles’ Biggest Controversies Of Their Career

As one of the most significant rock bands of the decade, the Beatles were certainly no strangers to fans’ intense emotional reactions and propensity for crossing boundaries. But the way John Lennon’s comments incensed American Christians created one of the biggest controversies of the Beatles’ career. The backlash to his comparison of the Beatles to Jesus far surpassed the initial hesitation older crowds had with the Fab Four when they first burst onto the scene. This was intense and potentially violent.

Angry protestors began mailing death threats to the Beatles and their family members. The band feared attacks while on the road. People were gathering specifically to burn their Beatles merchandise, and radios nationwide banned their music.

Eventually, Lennon apologized during a Chicago press conference in August of that year. “I wasn’t saying the Beatles are better than Jesus or God or Christianity,” Lennon said, per CBS. “I was using the name Beatles because I can use them easier, ‘cause I can talk about Beatles as a separate thing and use them as an example, especially to a close friend [Maureen Cleave].”

“But I could have said TV or cinema or anything else that’s popular,” he continued. “Motorcars are bigger than Jesus. But I just said Beatles because, you know, that’s the easiest one for me. I just never thought of the repercussions. I never really thought of it.” He apologized for the “mess it’s made, but I never meant it as an anti-religious thing or anything.”

Photo by Daily Mirror/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images