Jonathan Cott interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono for the first time in 1968 when Cott was the first European editor for a fledgling magazine called Rolling Stone. It was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. His last interview with Lennon was just three days before his death. His most recent interview with Ono was in 2012 shortly before her eightieth birthday (OMG, she's 80!). In addition to his reminiscences about their meetings and what was going on socially and musically at the time, Cott includes the full transcripts of his recorded interviews. The interviews were published in part in Rolling Stone and other periodicals but reading them in their entirety is fascinating (at least to a John Lennon fan). Lennon talks candidly about his life, fame, The Beatles, his relationship and work with Yoko, the "bed-ins" for peace, and other performers/songs that influenced his music. Two haunting parts of the 1980 interview stood out for me. In one part, when talking about future plans Lennon said, "But there's time, right? Plenty of time." followed by "it will be fun to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, It will be fun, won't it, to start 1981 like 1968?" And when talking about the critics he said, "What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interested in being a dead f***ing hero...." Three days later, December 8, 1980, he became one. Those who aren't fans may not care about this book but I just might have to buy a copy for my personal library.
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