John Lennon Taped His Own Phone Calls and Said 'I'm Not About to Get Shot,' 8 Years Before His Murder

John Lennon was more than just a musical legend and a part of The Beatles. He was a resilient activist who dived deep into the political turmoil in the 1970s before he was tragically shot to death. In an upcoming documentary about Lennon's life called One to One: John & Yoko, there are glimpses into the life of the iconic musician with his wife Yoko Ono after they moved to New York City in 1971. Back then, America's political scenario was tense, and the documentary covers the ill-fated history of the Free the People Tour that Lennon planned with activist Jerry Rubin to mix music and politics.

However, the documentary also includes a chilling phone call that Lennon made to his friend 8 years before he was assassinated. According to PEOPLE, He spoke about the risks of gun violence in America. In a segment of the documentary that will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, Lennon was chatting with drummer Jim Keltner on the phone when the singer was asked if he had "any sort of paranoia" about starting the Free The People Tour. Lennon's goal with the tour was to raise enough money to pay for bailing people who couldn't afford it themselves.

“What people? Do you mean people trying to kill us or something like that? I’m not about to get myself shot,” Lennon said in the archival footage included in the documentary. “It’ll cause excitement in its own way. But, you know, I’m still an artist, but a revolutionary artist, right?” Later on, Lennon admitted in an interview with a journalist that he was indeed a bit paranoid and had started taping his phone calls. “We started noticing people hanging outside the apartment. And I have a driver, he’s an ex-cop. But we’re getting followed by this car, all the time,” he said during the conversation in the documentary. “So we’re all very nervous.”

Lennon's paranoia would ultimately come true in 1980 when he got shot and killed outside his New York City apartment on December 8, 1980. Lennon was only 40 years old. According to Esquire, Lennon was assassinated by Mark David Chapman, who was a former security guard and 25 years old back then. He purchased a revolver and started lingering close to The Dakota apartments where Lennon lived. The day he shot Lennon, he also met him for the first time and got his album copy of Double Fantasy signed by the musician.

The same day when Lennon and Ono returned to their apartment and stepped out of their car, Chapman shot at him 5 times. 4 of those bullets ended up fatally hitting Lennon. He was rushed to the Roosevelt Hospital but was declared dead upon arrival. After committing the horrific crime, Chapman did not flee the crime scene and stayed there until NYPD arrived to arrest him. “I'm sure the big part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil," he said in a police statement, referring to the main character of J.D Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, per the outlet.

According to The Guardian, Chapman had already planned to kill Lennon several months before he shot him. He claimed that Lennon's infamous remarks about The Beatles being "more famous than Jesus" in 1966 had angered Chapman who was leaning towards becoming an extremely religious person. In Lennon's song Imagine, where he says "imagine no possessions", despite living a lavish lifestyle also made Chapman believe that Lennon was "phony."