Imagine...a very angry John Lennon
JOHN Lennon once went so “mad” after he split up with Yoko Ono he started smashing windows and his friends had to tie him up.
Music manager Tony King said he had to sit on the former Beatle to calm him down after he went “crazy”.
The businessman, who has worked with some of the biggest names in rock from the Rolling Stones to Elton John, described the legendary musician as a “complicated” man.
On one occasion, while recording his “Rock’n’Roll” album in 1974, the Beatles singer “went into a blackout” and started smashing windows and screaming at a house in Los Angeles, King said.
He became so furious his friends had to tie his hands behind his back.
But when Lennon broke free his then girlfriend, May Pang, called King and asked him to come over and calm him down. King arrived at the property to find Lennon breaking gold records and “bellowing”.
He had to wrestle him to the ground and “lay on top” of him until he eventually calmed down, saying: “I had no idea you were so strong, dear.”
Speaking on the Headliners podcast with Nihal Arthanayake, King, now in his 80s, said: “He was emotionally complicated. He could be difficult, especially after he’d had a few drinks. That wasn’t such a great time to be around him.
“I had to look after him at that time when he’d left Yoko. They had split up and he had complicated times. He’d took a lot of acid (over the years) and I think that affected him quite a lot.
“He was recording a rock and roll album with Phil Spector. I knew the sessions were a bit wild and I didn’t really want to be there.”
On the night in question he said: “I drove over to the house I’d managed to get him opposite the Bel Air Hotel and I could hear this bellowing.
“I went up to the house and he was in the doorway screaming and over his shoulder were all these gold records bent and windows smashed.
“I said, ‘John, what’s the matter?’ and he fell on my shoulder and started crying saying, ‘they tied me up, I’m so scared’.”