Being a little reckless and wild is basically expected from celebrities. With all eyes on you, why not give people something entertaining? In many cases, though, this kind of behaviour isn’t intentional; it’s the result of an inflated ego or perhaps substance abuse, leading certain famous figures to act – to put it frankly – like arseholes. It shouldn’t be surprising that John Lennon, one of four musical masterminds who formed The Beatles, had his fair share of crazy stories, often involving him acting in bizarre or downright inexcusable ways.
The man was a complex figure, bursting with unique creative ideas that have left a lasting legacy on popular music. He is considered one of the most important musicians of all time, contributing to some incredibly iconic and era-defining pieces of music. Yet, he also had many violent tendencies that shouldn’t be ignored, something he attempted to straighten out near the end of his life as he advocated for peace and love across the world.
Still, Lennon got into all kinds of trouble, and in one instance, he apparently beat his friend, Bob Wooler, so hard that it almost killed him. “I was beating the shit out of him and hitting him with a big stick, too, and it was the first time I thought, ‘I can kill this guy’. I just saw it, like on a screen – that if I hit him once more, that was going to be it,” Lennon once recalled.
Lennon was also known for being a wife-beater. It seemed as though Lennon’s morals were way out of line for much of his career, and he didn’t hesitate to get violent or potentially offend someone if he felt it was necessary. Even the iconic actor Pam Grier, who appeared in blaxploitation classics like Coffy and Foxy Brown – and later the Quentin Tarantino movie Jackie Brown – has a story to tell about one of Lennon’s craziest moments.
It actually seems fairly tame in comparison to the story about Lennon beating a man (reportedly because he joked about Lennon going on a “honeymoon” with Brian Epstein). Still, Lennon’s behaviour during a trip with Grier and a few other familiar faces to the Troubadour in 1974 was pretty dire. During an interview with The New Yorker, Grier recalled being asked to go to a gig with Lennon and some famous pals.
“At the Oscars rehearsal, they asked me to join them to see the Smothers Brothers—John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, and Peter Lawford,” she said. “I’d never been to the Troubadour.”
Little did Grier know, she wouldn’t be going to the Troubadour anytime soon again. “The Smothers Brothers were coming on, and everybody said, ‘John, be quiet.’ They start the show, and he turned to me and said, ‘They’re fucking boring.’ And I went, ‘Sh-h-h!’ The manager came up and said, ‘John, come on. No one would do this to you. Please.’ The manager walks away, and John says, ‘Pam, c’mon, let’s sing!’ I went, ‘No, John, please don’t sing! I’m the only black person in this whole club. I cannot do this.’”
Clearly, Lennon couldn’t care less about offending people or making his friends uncomfortable. “So he started singing, and the manager comes up again, and, next thing you know, chairs were thrown, legs and fists were flying, and I’m in the middle of it. I had to fight my way out of there.”
Despite Grier’s best efforts, Lennon ignored her, choosing to cause chaos instead.
