December 9, 2024 • 62 mins
Join me for my conversation with Laurie Kaye. She takes me through her life, career, interviews with Mick Jagger, David Bowie, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, cultiminating with her interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Dakota in NYC on the day of John Lennon's death. Great conversation on a deep and sad topic.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
You are listening to the Figure Eights podcast. I'm your host,
Nick Leet from the band High On Stress out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And the world is weird. I don't know if you've
all been paying attention, but it is.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's been a little trying this year to say, to
say the least, so you know.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Today we have a guest by the name of Lori k.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
She's written a wonderful book called Confessions of a Rock
and Roll Name Dropper, my life leading up to John
Lennon's last interview. I'm an enormous fan of the Beatles,
as pretty much everyone listening to this is as well.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And I'm a big.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
A Lenon guy.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I was been a bigger onen En guy.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I liked his edge, I liked his wit. I like
dway you thought. So really kind of a great moment
here to talk to Laurie. She interviewed John and Yoko
on December eighth, nineteen eighty, just hours before he was
before he was killed outside of the Dakota, New York City,
and this conversation first of while I write her book fantastic.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You should pick it up.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
There's also an audio version where you get your books,
but just going back to that interview that she did
with John on the day that he died, and really
it was kind of amazing to see the way he
looked at the world at that time and how much
it still applies today. So as we get into this
conversation and as we stare down what's to be another
(01:36):
interesting year here in twenty twenty five, this is probably
the last episode I'll release this year, so this may
be the last time I have something up here until
next year. So this is kind of a happy Holiday's,
happy New Year, all of that fun stuff. But I
just want to use his words, John Lennon's words as
you look into twenty twenty five. He talks in his
(01:58):
final interview about projecting positive future and the importance of it.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So let's try to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Let's let's regain our humanity. Let's let's do what's right.
Let's people. People are people, We need to support people,
we need to be forgiving of people, you know, and
let's let's reclaim our humanity Projected Positive Future. Thank you
for listening to the Figure Eights podcast this year. I
(02:27):
look forward to more episodes next year. And without further ado,
I give you Lori K thank you for joining us
(02:53):
on the on the anniversary here, and as I was
just saying for a hit record, you called it the
best and worst day of your life.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So I'm sure this time comes up.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Every year, and it's it's a little bittersweet absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
December eighth, nineteen eighty, the day that I co conducted
for RKO Radio at the Dakota Well what tragically turned
out to be John Lennon's last interview. He was shot
and killed mere hours after our interview ended. So that's
what made it the worst. The best is still because
(03:32):
we had an incredible interview and he was so complimentary
and so validating when it came to all my comments
and questions. He would say things to me like, yes, love,
that's it exactly, and it just made me feel thrilled
like he and Yoko and I had become lifetime friends.
(03:54):
And of course that tragically never was able to happen.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Right, And I definitely want to get into that day itself.
But I just finished your book, I see you've got
the cover behind you, Confessions of a Rock and Roll
Name Dropper, and I read it this week and it
was really really interesting to read. You've had quite the
adventures over the years, and to start with that, you've
(04:20):
had it. You tell me how much you want to
go into this, because it's your life. But you got
an interesting upbringing for sure, different than most.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Absolutely. I was raised by a dysfunctional family, a single
mother who lived with grandparents for quite a while, and
unfortunately she never wanted to have a child. Her husband
left her when he found out that she was pregnant,
so I was basically nothing she ever wanted. So in
(04:50):
order to get away from that, what I did, starting
out as a baby, even before I was a toddler,
listening to rock radio, AM radio, and then when I
was a toddler, I got my very own transistor radio
with earplugs, and it was so exciting because I could
spend the entire day and the entire night in bed
(05:11):
with the plugs in my ears and listen to everybody
I wanted to hear that they were playing on the radio,
you know, everybody from Oh Gosh, Elvis Costello, Little Richard,
you name it, and then of course the Beach Boys
and then finally the Beatles. So yes, my my dysfunctional
family upbringing basically helped my career in a way because
(05:35):
it got me totally in the music and rock radio.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, what you mentioned Elvis Costello, the Beatles, What were
some of those songs that were really pulling you in,
some of your favorites of that time that you looked
for comfortable?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Well, actually I mentioned Elvis Presley, oh, because he was
big when I was a kid, and that was really exciting.
And so many other songs were so important to me.
And in my book, I name all the chapters after
titles of some of my favorite songs. So the chapter
(06:08):
about this is named after the Journey song Raised on radio,
which is exactly what I was. And I heard everything
from as a kid, like I said, from Elvis Presley
to Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly.
And my favorite Buddy Holly song was Peggy Sue. I
(06:28):
actually wanted to change my name from Lori Joe to
Peggy Zoo. I thought that'd be cool. And eventually I
got to listen to the Beach Boys and the Beatles
and that was super thrilling. And then of course as
I got into junior high and high school, there were
so many other bands and artists that I really loved.
Everybody from Neil Young, to David Bowie to the Rolling Stones,
(06:54):
Elton John. I mean, you know, I was just thrilled
with all of them and got to see the bulk
of them, excuse me, in concert. It was great. And
I relied heavily on my transit to radio for years
and years, and my friends and their brothers and sisters
(07:14):
and their family had singles and albums that I got
to go to their house and listen to because of
course my family didn't have that. So that was really thrilling.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Too, gotcha, gotcha? Do you still have that transit to radio?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I wish I did. No'm sorry I don't, but I
do still have a lot of my original vinyl albums,
which I'm happy to say, the ones that weren't destroyed
in earthquakes over the years or lost my moving vans
over the years as I moved across the country or
out of the country. So that's very exciting for me.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You mentioned in your book of your travels and moving
from station to station, city to city.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Where do you sit today?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Well, today, I'm back in Los Angeles. I'm a SoCal gal.
That's where I was raised and that's where I am now,
and I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Nice, nice, and tell us how you got into your
career in music.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Well, I was basically just so excited, like I said,
about music and radio rock radio ever since I was
a kid. But I'm sure that that dawned on me
as a child. Wow, this is what I wanted to do,
This is what I want to be on. But then,
(08:34):
first of all, back in high school, thanks to the
amazing LA FM radio station KMET, I won front row
seats at the Forum to see the Rolling Stones Nicaragua
benefit concert, which they did because, of course, Mick Jagger's
Nicaraguan wife, Bianca, probably had family that was devastated by
(08:57):
the earthquake that hit Nicarago as well, so he decided
to make The Stones part of the benefit. And when
I went to go pick up my tickets that I
won at the radio station, one of my all time
favorite disc jockeys, B Mitchell Read otherwise known on the
air as the Beamer, was on the air then and
(09:20):
invited me into his booth to find out who I
was and my age and my name and everything. And
I started talking to him on the air and he
looked at me and said, Wow, what a great voice.
You should have a radio career, you should be on
the air. So that did it for me. Oh set
me up to work towards that. And then years later,
(09:44):
when I was a journalism student at UC Berkeley, one
of my top professors said to me after I turned
in yet another article that I'd written for the local paper,
the campus paper, he said to me, Laurie, you all
you already know how to be a newswriter. You're a
great newswriter. Why are you bothering to take a class.
(10:06):
You should get an internship. It leads you to a
job right away, that's all you need. So sure enough
he convinced me to go after an internship at KFRC Radio.
They were looking for their very first newsroom intern, and
of course I got it. And shortly after that, they
were so excited about my talent and my ability that
(10:29):
they off fored me a job as their news editor.
And that was really exciting. I got to quit school
and I got to start working, and not only did
I have the news editor job, but I was also
immediately offered the opportunity to do rock radio special. It
turned out to be the longest Beatles special ever created
(10:52):
in the United States for radio, and it was amazing.
It was fourteen hours long. They called it RKO Presents
the Beatles, and I wrote it and I co produced it,
and that was really exciting. And it took about a year,
and then within a year after it aired, they decided
(11:14):
that they want to to syndicate it so it could
air all over the world, not just the country, and
they let us expand it to seventeen hours, so I
didn't writing or interviewing or co producing. And not only that,
but they let us change the title to the one
I'd originally come up with and wanted to use, which
is the Beatles from Liverpool to Legend. And that's what
(11:37):
people all over the world still know.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Nice And what year was that when that special came out?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Well, the original special came out late in seventy seven,
and the syndicated one came out probably just over a
year later.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Gotcha? And is that still available somewhere to hear? Is
it how anywhere or streaming?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I believe there are pieces of it that are still
available online, but the company that now owns RKO Radio
specials and things like that hasn't put it out, so no,
it's not officially out. It's, like I said, pieces of
it are on YouTube that kind of thing, and unfortunately
(12:22):
I can't recommend that because that's illegal. But there are
pieces and mentions of it on my website as well,
which is Confessions of a rock and Roll name Dropper
dot Com. And I should mention that my book's title
is Confessions of a rock and Roll namdropper dot Com
My life leading up to John Lennon's last interview.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Right wow.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Hopefully at some point that organization releases that special would
be really fascinating to listen to. And in reading your
book you got into the It must have felt great,
you know, coming from where you'd come from, getting your
arm the rock and roll wrapping its arms around you,
and then getting that positive reinforcement from people in music,
(13:07):
so it's the thing you love and you're getting that
was just magical at the time. Do you know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
In regards to your ability and guilty early on voice,
you know, if you've been able to track that back anywhere,
just just something to have.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, my grandparents were into music, and so as a baby,
I was listening to the songs and uh and TV
shows that they liked, which weren't rock and roll, but
still it was something that helped me with it, and
my mother was never into rock and roll. She was
only into Frank Sinatra, which I've never been into, so
(13:55):
so that didn't help. So basically it was all myself
that that put that in, and so many of my
friends uh and and even some relatives because I got
to hear uh and watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
show thanks to my aunt when I was over at
their house, and that was really thrilling.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So yeah, that's that's one of those moments you hear
about that people time stopped. I wasn't around for it,
but I've heard some stories, so you knew it was
going to be on. Everybody was gathering around the TV
to see it. I assume I've heard some stories where
people were like, you know, the one time they were
(14:37):
allowed to step away from the table, that sort of thing.
So what was it like for you? Did you purposely
go over there to watch it? It was a big
event that everybody was getting ready for. You know, what
did that day look like for you?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
It was thrilling, and I knew the Beatles were going
to be on Ed Sullivan, So I spent a lot
of weekends away from my mother anyway, So that one
was with my aunt and her husband and my cousins,
and they of course were going to watch Ed Sullivan
and the cousins were really excited about seeing the Beatles,
and so it helped. It helped us start me off.
(15:12):
I'd already listened to them tons of time on the
radio and tried to win contests. For example, shortly afterwards,
things like they were giving away when the Beatles played
in Los Angeles and Hollywood Bowl, they were giving away
radio station said things like pieces of sheets and pillowcases
(15:36):
at each of the Beatles had used while they were
staying at a hotel or rental houses in town. And
unfortunately I never won anybody. It was still exciting to
think about trying to.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Well in your career led you to meeting some of
these legends or you know, either in person or over
the phone. Early on you mentioned this, so Mick Jagger,
you got to talk to Mick Jagger.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Correct, I did, and that was like, well, it was
really exciting because not only could I tell him, Wow,
I want tickets to your Nicaragua benefit. And that was
the first Stone show I've ever seen, and I've seen
so many since, and it's been so thrilling. And actually,
just to let you know, I saw the Stones fairly
(16:23):
recently and they're still incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, saw I'm ten years ago. It's amazing still.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And another great thing about talking to Mick Jagger was
he called me because we were going to be interviewing him.
I was going to be interviewing him for the Top
one hundred of the Seventies, the show that I was
writing also for r KO Radio and Drake Chanalt and
he called right before I was about to go on
(16:51):
the air a newscast and I said, Gee, do you
want me to call you back or do you want
to call me back? And he said, no, just keep
the phone on. Oh, listen to you, and he did,
and he complimented me afterwards. It was so thrilling. So
I've always been a super huge fan of Mick Jagger
and even more after that.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, I was amazed ten years ago seeing him. That
guy still doesn't sit still. You go see these bands
of early twenties something folks, and they have not near
the energy level of Micchegger at this point. It's just
amazing what that guy has.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And that had to been pretty damn nerve wracking to
know that Micjagger was do your thing.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It made me really really nervous, but like I said,
he still complimented me, and so it was great. So
that's all off.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You can carry that around with you forever. That's pretty amazing.
And then Bowie called you and this.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Was well first before we get to Bowie the Nick
Roguin benefit.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
What year was that? What was the era of Stones?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You know, it's funny with the band, like the Stones
have been around so long, he got these different pop gets,
some different eras and different you know, it kind of
remained Stones the whole time, but there are some variations
of how they operated and what kind of music they
were putting out.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
What era was that? Was that around the time of exile.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Or January nineteen seventy three, okay, And it was really
really thrilling. I was in high school and to be
able to do that. And shortly after that I got
to see David Bowie the East Artist tour that was
at the Long Beach Arena, and I had already become
a huge Bowie fan thanks to the radio and album,
(18:36):
but seeing him live was amazing. It was incredible live
and he looked great and he dressed great and he
danced great, and he's saying great was it was super cool?
And I enjoyed seeing him a super number of times
over the years as well.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And you talked to Bowie, right, you interviewed him.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yes, that was a great phone conversation as well also
for the top one hundred of this seventies. And he
was also super excited to hear about my experience seeing
him so many times and especially part of the Ziggy
Stardis tour. And it was great. And I think he's
a late, great, incredible artist.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, And just the way that that man went.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Out was so bowy releasing that album on what was
it Friday, and then on Monday he passes away. I'm like,
that man's art went up until the last point and
I think that is just an amazing, you know, amazing
way to go and that album is amazing. Have you
(19:43):
spent much time with that last record?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Is I still do? Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, it's so it's it's it's a hard listen, but
it's amazing. What a great way to go out with
just top shelf material, the messages, you know, really taking
in consideration where he was at at the end of
his life. There it was just amazing art. And you
should not be surprised when it comes to Bowie that
(20:08):
he would that he would align his life in a
way because it was art from the beginning to the end,
so it's pretty magical. You mentioned in your book you
interviewed George Harrison. Was this also for the seventies or
was it for the Seventies Special or was this something different.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Late nineteen seventy eight, in December I interviewed George Harrison
not only for Top one hundred of the seventies, but
also to add to the syndicated version of Our Beatles Special,
which is The Beatles from Liverpool The Legend. And that
was a super long interview compared to the other two
and other two meaning Mick Jagger and David Bowie. And
(20:47):
George was incredible to talk to because he had just
married Olivia and before ly before shortly before that, they'd
had their son, Danny, and he was so excited about
being a daddy and being able to stay home instead
of going on tour and raising his son. And in
(21:08):
his work, it's gardening. He loved gardening, so there he
was with his wife and his son and his garden
and it was just thrilling to hear everything about him
and although he loved, loved doing his latest album, which
he told me did not have a title, he was
just going to call it George Harrison because that's how
people went into the stores and asked, yeah, the latest
(21:30):
George Harrison album anyway, So that was very exciting for
him too, and that was a wonderful interview. And then
not long after that, in June of nineteen seventy nine,
I was sent to London by RKO Radio along with
Dave Sholin, our music director, and my co interviewer and
(21:52):
our engineer producer Ron Hummel. We were sent to London
to interview Paul and Linda McCartney and their latest lineup
of Wings that included of course, the late great Denny Lane.
And that was an amazing interview. They were so loving
and so caring about each other, not just in their
(22:13):
relationship and having kids together, but also because they loved
recording together, they loved songwriting together, and they loved going
out on the road and performing together. Paul said, there,
I am on the road with my best friend, and
that was really cool to hear. So an amazing interview,
(22:37):
and not only that, but Paul and Linda were both
very loving to me too and hugging and kissing, and
oh it was great.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
As a Beatles fan.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
That had been pretty amazing to get to that point
when you heard you were going to interview Harrison. You
know what was going through your head at that point,
like could you even believe that your luck that you
were going to be able to talk to a Beatle?
You know, how did that conversation come up? When they said, hey,
we need you to talk to George.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I was thrilled and it was right away pretty much.
It was not a long wait at all before the interview,
so I didn't have time to get too crazy about it.
But I had a lot of time to do more
research and come up with more questions and it was
just wonderful to talk to him. And I also came
(23:26):
up with all the questions for our Paul and Lynda
McCartney interview too, and that was really thrilling. And then
after that I was able to interview George Martin, their
incredible producer, and that was in let's see January of
nineteen eighty and it was right after his book had
(23:50):
come out, which is all you need is Ears and
it was all about being with the Beatles and getting
to know them and getting to start working with them
and all the way up through Abbey Road and let
it be and that was thrilling. And plus he was
a fan of the Beatles from Liverpool to Legend are
super long Beatles Special And he was so complimentary and
(24:12):
he gave me such a great autograph in the copy
of his book that I had, and he was wonderful
to talk to and it just made me so sad
years later when he passed away. And like I said,
that was January of nineteen eighty and at the end
of that year, the forty fourth anniversary, December eighth, that
(24:36):
was our John Lennon yoko Ono interview and that was
amazing as well at the Dakota.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, and you mentioned in your book.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I believe you asked John why he chose you, or
one of your colleagues asked John, is that accurate? Why
were you chosen for that interview?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Well? I know why we were chosen. Basically, it was
not only because we'd written the incredibly Long Beatles Special
for RKO Radio and all over the world, but also
because we'd interviewed Paul McCartney just you know, not even
that long before, just over a year before. And also
(25:20):
I had interviewed George Harrison and George Martin and that
was thrilling, no doubt. And also Dave Sholeen, incredible music director,
was a good friend of Warner Brothers Geffen Records exec
Bert Keene, and he's the one who put it together.
(25:41):
So we definitely became the only national radio team to
interview John and Yoko in the United States. There had
been a BBC British interview a week couple of weeks before,
but we were the very last interview. And sad to.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Say, I'd heard so many bits and pieces of your
interview over the years because they're you.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Know, in different documentaries and different things.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
So I actually spent last night going back and I
found the whole thing online, which was kind of interesting
because I had not heard the whole thing from front
to back, just a lot of the main things that
you've heard over the years.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Well, I have to tell you that when you hear
it online, like I said, it's illegal because it's not
RKO Radio or the company that owns it now putting
it out. So number one, it's not the complete interview.
It's not four hours plus and it's not the fully best.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Audio and everything else.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, unfortunately, but people still can hear pieces. But if
you want to hear pieces from the original interview, the
best quality sounding you can listen to my self voiced
audiobook of Confessions of a Rock and Roll Name Dropper,
My life leading up to John Lennon's Last Interview, which
not only features plenty of original interview bites from John
(27:11):
Lennon and Yoko, but also Paul and Linda and George
Harrison and George Martin and so many other incredible rock
stars and bands that I interviewed.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, four hours. So that complete interview was four hours long.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
And we spent more time with them than that because
after the interview ended, we were still hanging out. We
were taking photos together, we were getting autographs, We were
making plans to get together in a couple of weeks
when John and Yoko were going to be out on
the West Coast, and we all worked it out that
(27:48):
we were going to go eat dinner with John and
Yoko at Yoko's favorite Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. And
I was so thrilled because, like I said that meant
we were going to be friends for and we weren't
going to be doing an interview anymore. We were going
to be talking about personal things. And I had so
much in common with John, the way we were both
(28:10):
family raised or not raised, and also we'd spend both
of us so much time loving Bally that's where I
was living and studying dance, which is also in my book.
I was a Balanese dance student, and so I was
really looking forward to discussing that with them, and also
with Yoko about their relationship, and hopefully they were going
(28:33):
to tell me how to get in a good relationship
and make it last, because I hadn't been able to
do that yet. And that's also all in my book.
So sex and drugs and rock and roll a big
part of my book.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
It's all there. Looking back. Obviously, you're a huge Beatles fan.
Did you have a favorite Beatle or just love them all?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I loved them all, to be very honest, and I
still do. You know. Of course, the ones that passed away,
George Harrison and John Lennon are deepest in my heart
because there's no way I can still see them. And thankfully,
even though I never got to interview Ringo. This past July,
(29:17):
his eighty fourth birthday, he had yet another outdoor birthday
celebration at a ARC in Beverly Hills, where he donated
a incredible statue that he made, which is a big
hand with fingers, and he stood in front of it
(29:37):
and talked to everybody all at once, and that was
really cool to be able to be there and see
him close up. And I was able to leave a
signed copy of my book for him with one of
his staff members, So I keep hoping that he's going
to read it. He's going to love it. And I
really had to talk to him one day.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
So you got to complete the whole set. He got
one beatle left. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I'm a
huge Beatles fan. My favorites are the Beatles and prints
and John Lennon's my favorite beatle, love them all, John
Lennon's my favorite. You talked about the nerves going into
(30:16):
that interview, right. I had the opportunity a couple of
times to stand next to Prince and I could not
say a.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Word to the dude because I.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
It would have ruined years of of you know, if
it went the wrong way. Right, and Lennon, you know,
obviously highly, highly intellectual, smart witty, can be a little
biting at times, you know, all of that stuff coming
into this thing. You know in the interviews post Beatles
(30:47):
that that kind of early seventies period he was he
was pretty upset with.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
The weight of the world, the way things were going.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You could tell, you know, he was separating himself from
the Beatles and Paul and everything else. And when you
listen to those things, that are very interesting to see
what he has to say, because he's just his insight
is amazing. It's one of the things I love most
about him is listening to him talk about different subjects
beyond the fact that he was an incredible songwriter and singer.
(31:19):
By that period, like he had taken that five years off,
they had the last weekend and he had taken time
off to ray Sean, and there really wasn't a lot
of interviews out there to listen to of what he
had going on. So I'm assuming you going into that
interview everything that you had heard from him over the
last five years or ten years or so had a
(31:41):
little bite to it, right.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So were you a little nervous walking into that room?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Knowing that I got to be able to hang with
this guy who's so witty, so biting, so intelligent and
so talented. You know, what were your thoughts walking into
the Dakota that morning.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Well, I'd been somewhat terrified on our flight over the
night before because I was coming up with the questions
to ask, and we'd been told, don't talk about the Beatles,
don't talk about John's past, and I knew not to
because I was reading the Playboy interview he'd done and
he was so obviously upset with the writer for bringing
(32:17):
all that stuff up. So I thought, Okay, I got
to be really careful and not do that. And I
want John to think that I'm intellectual as well and
that I'm smart, and so I made sure not to.
And the cool thing was that John brought it up himself.
He brought up the Beatles, he brought up his first
(32:37):
meeting with Paul McCartney and the long story of his
first meeting with Yoko Ono. And it was really exciting
because the minute he came in to the office from
his photo session upstairs, which Yoko came down from first,
and then John came in about half an hour to
(32:59):
fo forty minutes later, and he opened the door slightly,
and I'd already been talking to Yoko about a lot
of things, and he stuck his nose through the door
and you could see his glasses sticking through, and just
to be funny, I looked at him and said, can
you tell we're in the middle of an interview? And
he started laughing, and I started laughing, and he came
(33:21):
and he sat right next to me on the love seat,
right in front of the cool coffee table they had there,
this big, long glass one, and I was so thrilled,
and he immediately started looking at me over his glasses
and smiling, and like I said before, he started saying
things to me. With every comment and question I had, yes, exactly, Laurie,
(33:46):
love that exactly. And it was so thrilling to be
validated like that. I don't think I ever had in
an interview before. Felt so encouraged about everything that I
wanted to know. And the interesting thing is, in the beginning,
our Warner brothers, Geffen exac Bert King had a son
(34:09):
just about the same age as Sean John and Yoko's son,
who was five at the time, So of course the
first things that he wanted us to ask was all
about being a house husband and a daddy, and John
was very encouraging, and it went on for quite a while,
but then I just sensed no, it was time to
(34:31):
change the subject, so I said to him, I want
to ask you, John, about getting an urge to make
music again. And I emphasized that, and John burst in
with his super loud, funny and affectionate reply, Oh, it
came over me all of a sudden love. I don't
know what came over me. And everyone laughed while I
(34:53):
reacted confidently to his endearing response, and I said, I know,
it's like you were possessed and he said, I was
possessed by this rock and roll devil. And he said
and everybody in the room laughed again, and then he said,
was that your question? And he asked that really politely.
Did I interrupt you? And I said, no, you got it,
(35:15):
And I was smiling like crazy as he and Yoko
went on to discuss their work and the love that
went into creating Double Fantasy together, and John came in
again and said, just suddenly, I had, like, if you'll
pardon the expression, a diarrhea of creativity. And we all
(35:37):
started laughing again as John went on to describe talking
to Yoko about the inspiration for their songs and how
they discussed going back into the studio but didn't have
the material, and he said, but I wasn't worried about
it because I thought, well, I haven't done it in
a long time. Maybe if I switch into that, they'll
(35:59):
be something there. And it just sort of came, he said,
And I called her because I was in Bermuda with
Sean at the time and she was here in New York.
And I called her and said, well, look, we were
talking about recording, and it must have triggered something off
here because I'm getting all this stuff all of a sudden,
and I started singing to her down on the phone
(36:23):
or playing a cassette for her. And then John echoed
what Yoko had been telling us just before he arrived,
that she would call him back a couple of hours
later and tell him how when he sang a song
to her like I'm Losing You, she was inspired to
come up with I'm Moving On, which she would then
sing to him. And John said, and then I'd be
(36:46):
swimming and something else would come up, like starting over.
As Yoko said it was really truly a dialogue in
that sense. And she said, I would make one song
and sing it to him over the phone, and then
he reacts to that in a way, and then he
would write another song and vice versa. Yeah, and that
was thrilling to hear because Double Fantasy was such an
(37:09):
incredible album and it gave everybody in a relationship the
idea that yes, they should have dialogues with their husband
or their wife or girlfriend or boyfriend as well. So
John and Yoko got to let people know now that
they were back together, that this is what it took
(37:29):
to have a great relationship again, a great dialogue, right.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And he talks a lot in there about not presenting
themselves as the perfect couple, and they have arguments like
everybody else and all of that, which I think just
his openness.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Is a great thing. People need to hear that stuff.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
So when I'm listening to this thing, there's a lot
of hope in his voice and a lot of what
is going on today in this world, which is, I
don't know what's to itself, not a great time in history.
It Just listening to this, I could not help but
(38:06):
think about what he would have to say about this
and how much what he said forty four years ago
today still applies, Like how incredibly ahead of his time
he was in every possible way, but just how incredibly
spot on he was about politics and people and relationships
(38:29):
and everything. But he really, you know, I talked about
how he kind of had that chip on his shoulder
in those early seventies interviews, your interview, he was playful.
Maybe it was because you gave him shit when he
walked in, but he was playful. He was choking, he
was having fun. He was talking about his past. He
(38:50):
was talking about the future and how we need to
project positivity for the future, which I think we can
all you know, should really hold on today. We need
to project positives. So his attitude that day was so
incredibly infectious.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
He obviously liked this all me and date Abe and
Ron and Bert, and as I said, he was sitting
right next to me and looking at me so much
throughout the day, and that was thrilling. And one of
the saddest things he did say during our interview was
that he hoped to God that Yoko didn't die before
(39:26):
he did, even though she was older than him, that
he passed away before she did. And sad to say
that happened mere hours later when he was shot and killed,
which broke my heart and everybody else's who was a
huge fan of his, and of course I still.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Am still to this day.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I went on Facebook this morning and my friend the
Wall on Facebook, all my friends posting pictures of Lenin
and quotes. It's just his legacy, obviously, the Beatles legacy
will never go away. Every my kids love the Beatles,
every kid loves the Beatles that they're one of those
things that's never going to go away. Like there are
a lot of things that will kind of fade off,
(40:06):
become less popular, the Beatles will not be one of
those things.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Every generation carries it forward.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
One of the most one of the most amazing things
I got to do this year was go to a
theater and see A Hard Day's Night. They put it
out again for the anniversary, and it was so cool
to see it again, not just on TV but on
a huge movie screen, and it was great the music
(40:33):
and seeing them all, and of course I started crying
because I immediately remembered being with John Lennon and how sad
and guilty I felt after he was shot and killed,
and that's the thing. I just December eighth is just
such a major date for me, and that's the reason
(40:53):
that I chose that date to have it be the
official release date of my book. So my book has
been out a year now, and I share that anniversary
with our John Lennon interview right right.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
And I appreciate you coming on on a day because
I you know, it's forty four years, but I can't
imagine it gets much easier knowing that you spent the
day with him and the and what happened afterwards. And
one of the things that I thought was interesting about
the interview as well is the toy that you brought
for Sean, because you can hear him playing around with
it in the interview and laughing and having a good
(41:29):
time with it. So just that playful spirit he had
that day was just so cool. He felt so light,
He felt he felt like he was in a comfortable
spot in his life.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
And we all have.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Good days and bad days and sideways and everything else,
but there definitely was an aura to him that day
in that interview that felt like he was comfortable. And
I can't imagine you don't know the guy I never
knew the guy, but I can't imagine he was probably
very comfortable throughout his life for many reasons his childhood,
know that the whirlwind of the Beatles, what came afterwards,
(42:04):
you know, there were drugs in there that he had
to work through, divorce, all of the things, Like, he
had a lot of stuff on his plate throughout his life,
and it was so heartwarming to hear him sound so
positive and excited for the future and so happy and
just light so that which obviously makes the whole thing
(42:25):
even more tragic, right, because you know, when you're younger,
you're like, forty is forties old, and you're like, you know,
I'm forty five, and I'm like, forty is not even
close to old, not even close. So it's just so
shocking still to this day and so tragic.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
One of the most thrilling things about being there with
John and Yogo, especially John, was their reaction to the
toy that I had brought for John, excuse me, their
reaction to the toy that I had brought for their son, Sean,
who at five years old, was not with us that day.
He was out with his nanny having lunch or doing whatever,
(43:03):
and I brought him a wind up metal, fire breathing
dragon that immediately when Yoko saw it, said, oh, John
is going to love this. He may not want to
give it to Sean. He may want to keep it
for himself. And that's exactly what Sean said, excuse me,
That's exactly what John said when he started playing with
(43:26):
it and making it run up and down, up and
down the coffee table right in front of us on
the love seat, and watching it breathe and listening to it,
and he said, I don't know if I want to
give it to Sean. I may want to just keep
this for myself. So one thing I couldn't help but
wonder for years afterwards, was after John was shot and killed,
(43:48):
did Yoko give it to Sean? And I never found
out because I never had any following relationship with Sean
ran into him until this year. February of this year,
I got to meet him. I was screening Yeah, at
the screening of his short animated film War Is Over
(44:12):
that eventually won the Academy Award. And when I told
him that I was the person who had done the
last interview with his father, he was really happy to
meet me, and I gave him a copy, a signed
copy of my book for him and to give to
his mother. And he was thrilled about that and excited
(44:33):
looking forward to reading to it too. And I asked him,
I said, Sean, one thing I have to know. Did
your mother by any chance give you the toy that
I brought for you that day December eighth, nineteen eighty
And he said toy? What toy was that? And I said, oh,
it was a wind up fire breathing dragon, and he said,
(44:56):
oh my god, that was my favorite toy as a child.
I loved it. I kept it for years, and I
was so thrilled to hear that it basically improved my
life and made me feel even a bit better about
that day because John and Yoko were thrilled, and it
turned out Sean was thrilled. And I should also add
that John and Yoko were thrilled that I had brought
(45:18):
my copy of Yoko's book Grapepruit, which I had, and
Yoko was so excited she couldn't wait to autograph it
for me, and she said John was going to be
thrilled too, because they hadn't seen a copy in years
and years. And then John came and he saw it
and he said, oh my god, Laurie, can I autograph
(45:40):
it too, along with Yogo because I did the introduction
for the book. And I said, of course, that'd be great.
I can't wait. And he said I love it when
people autograph their books for me, my friends especially, And
I said, well, John, when I write my book, I
will definitely autograph and send you a copy. And he
looked at me and pushed down his glasses again and said, great,
(46:05):
LORI great. And that's made me feel terrific. Ever since,
even though it's taken me forty years since then to
start writing my book, all I can think about is, oh,
if only I could send it to John in they
have it.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Well, well, I think what you just said is pretty
remarkable because you you know, you can't give it to John,
but you gave it to Sean, and did you mention
you game one to Yoko as well? So yeah, you know,
in a way, you made good on your promise, which
I think you know is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Well, actually it's the same copy, Okay, I give Sean
that hopefully went to Yoko too, so but unfortunately I
haven't had contact with Yoko because I can only imagine
that I remind her of the worst day in her life,
so I can't blame her.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, no, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
That's probably you know, It's it's interesting because you know,
going into that interview, you were probably thinking, I'm going
to meet John Lennon today, which not many people can
say they've ever been in that situation. But also it
ties you to such a day in history too, So
it's just but you know, that interview though, it's like
(47:17):
it's like I said, it's there's something about it that
I just think there's almost a piece to it that
I just love about that interview, And with everything that
happened and how horrible it was, it's you know, if
you're you know, I'm glad he seemed happy, you know
what I mean that day, Like he seemed like he
was in a good space, got through the other side
(47:40):
of a lot of things, and and you know, he
should have had another forty forty five years, but you know,
taking comfort in the fact that you know he was
in a good place and having a good time.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
And you know, how did that day end for you?
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Then?
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Like you were there for four hours, it sounds like
you hit it off, you had some plans San Francisco.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
How did it end, Well, it was over four hours
that we were there all.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Again, four hours was the interview. But you were there, yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
But what happened was is that John and Yoko had
a recording studio session booked for that early evening, and unfortunately,
Yoko got a call saying that her limo driver wasn't
going to be able to take them, so she asked
us if we could drop them off at the recording studio.
(48:27):
And the guys that I was with were the ones
who were going to take the limo to the airport
because they were going back to the West Coast that night.
I was staying in New York that evening to have
dinner with and stay with a very good friend of
mine who just moved there, and so the guy said, yes,
of course, we'll drop you on our way to the airport.
(48:49):
So we started walking out of the Dakota shortly after that,
and the first thing that happened to me was this
obviously creepy guy I came up and looked at me
right in the face and said, did you talk to him?
Did you get his autograph? What do you say to you?
Did you talk to him, did you get his autograph?
What do you say to you? And I just automatically
(49:12):
disliked him, and you know, I didn't push him away,
but I walked away. And then the guys came out
and Bert keene Are Geffen Warner Brothers Exach gave that
creepy guy a copy of Double Fantasy, and when John
and Yogo came out shortly afterwards, a mere minute, John
(49:36):
signed it for him to shut the guy up too,
And then we all walked over to the limo, me
and the guys and John and Yoko and hugged and
said goodbye and can't wait to see you in a
couple of weeks. And it was just sighing, Oh God,
I'm so sad it's over, and and they got in
(49:56):
the limo and drove away with the guys, and I
started walking to my friend's office, and that creepy guy
started following me again and asking me the same things.
Did you talk to him? Did you get his autograph?
What do you say? And I kept telling him to
shut up and leave me alone and stop following me,
but he kept following me, and I got, you know,
(50:18):
nearly a block away, and finally I turned around, and
acted like I was gonna smack him, so he backed
up and finally stopped following me, and I continued walking
to my friend's office, thinking, God, I really should have
gone to the security department at the Dakota and told
them there's this guy there that you need to get
(50:40):
rid of because he's going to be a pain in
the ass for everybody there. But I didn't do that,
and my friend and I went out to dinner. I
told him how incredible the interview was, and then when
we got back to his apartment, as he was about
to open the door, he said, just so you know,
I leave the radio on. Somebody breaks in, they'll think
(51:02):
I'm home and they'll go away. And he opened the
door and the radio was on, but the music stopped
within about three seconds, and all of a sudden, a
reporter came on and said John Lennon's been shot and
he's in the hospital. And I went, oh, my god,
and I ran out into the street and immediately took
(51:22):
a cab to the Roosevelt Hospital. And when I got there,
I looked through the big glass door in front and
there was Yoko holding on to a friend and crying
hysterically and just looking at her. As much as I
wanted to go in and give her a hug, I
thought to myself, no, that will make her feel worse
seeing me. And I just have this feeling seeing her
(51:45):
being upset as much as she is that John doesn't
wasn't just shot. He's been killed. And so I immediately
went out and went to the photo booth right next door,
called the RKO radio network in New York and they said, oh,
(52:05):
come over immediately, and I did, and I spent the
night there, staying up all night doing interviews all over
the country and actually all over the world. And eventually
on the news they reported that, yes, John had been
shot and killed, and they showed the guy that admitted
to killing him, and he'd been arrested. And I looked,
(52:28):
and sure enough it was that asshole who'd been bugging
me and following me. And I've felt incredibly guilty ever since,
forty four years since, I still feel guilt all over
my shoulders and my head, because yes, I should have
reported him to the security department, and maybe they would
have called the police to get rid of him, or
(52:49):
maybe they would have looked at him and been able
to see in the coat that he was wearing that
he had a gun in his pocket, which I didn't,
so I felt terrible. The next morning, RKO got a
call saying, oh, we want Lori k who did the
last interview, to be on the Today Show this morning.
(53:11):
So I was. And it was tragic, and I felt
like crying the whole time, but I was. And then
right after it ended, I immediately flew back to San Francisco
and needed to start listening to the interview that we'd done,
which I had a copy of, and start writing the
special that was going to air as soon as possible,
(53:34):
which I titled John Lennon. Then The Memory, which was
a three hour special in itself and included a lot
of our interview, our wonderful interview together, and it aired
six days after John was shot and killed on the
Sunday afterwards.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
That would be pretty tough to go back and listen
to edit that thing, right after all that had happened,
to turn that audio on and here's you know how
he was presenting that that day. So you had to
turn that thing around pretty fast, like a couple of days,
it sounds like before it was on the air.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Well, it took me a couple of days to write
a special and choose the parts of the interview to
use and dedicate it to Yoko Ono and all that,
and then Dave Sholin voiced it, which was really cool,
and Ron Hammel produced it, and of course I listened
to it once it aired, and all I could think
about while it was hearing was how John had told
(54:28):
us that he couldn't wait to hear our interview on
the radio, and oh, it just made me cry.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yeah, well, it's it sucks that you've carried that guilt
with you all this time.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
I can understand your perspective of where you were at
at that time, but you know, if you live in
a major city, there's always some creep.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
Right wherever you go.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
You're walking on the street, and your initial thought is
get away from the creep.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
So, like, you know, you're not you can't tell the.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
Future, So it's it's it's terrible that you've had to
carry that with you because it's obviously not your fault, but.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Just a horrific, horrific tragedy.
Speaker 3 (55:13):
Well, as much as I've tried and people have helped
me try to not feel guilty, I still do, and
no doubt, I always still will.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Yeah, I'm sorry about that. That's that's rough.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
So now you've you've written the book, you've got the
book out. What's been the reaction to that book? You
mentioned it was released one year ago today, So what's
been the reaction. What's been your year like since it's
been released.
Speaker 3 (55:42):
Well, I've done tons of not just podcast interviews, but
online and print interviews and reviews, and TV and even
movie appearances and documentaries and and so I've been able
to talk about it a lot, and it's all mentioned
(56:02):
and featured on my website, and I've done a lot
of events like book signings and an incredible book launch
that I did at a great store here on the
Sunset Strip called book Soup. And my book has been
actually fairly successful, and happy to say, my publisher says
(56:23):
it's the best of the ones that they're dealing with,
so that's great. And Amazon, where it's available, also has
made me one of the top one hundred of their
thousands of Beatles related books, so I'm one of their
best sellers there. That's good to know. And it's just
(56:47):
done really well. And I've gotten a lot of reviews
from readers online on Amazon or Goodreads or Barnes and
Noble or so many other bookstores and everything, and that's
really exciting. So I hope plenty more people read it,
and plenty more people really enjoy it, and you know,
(57:10):
read about my life story all wrapped around what tragically
turned out to be John Lennon's last interview, and I'll
tell people the name again and Confessions of a rock
and roll name dropper, my life leading up to John
Lennon's last interview.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Well, I thank you for coming on here.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
Like I mentioned, it is, it is the anniversary, so
thank you for spending the day. I hope, you know,
going on these podcasts and getting interviewed and doing all
these things and talking about it helps you in some way.
But I really appreciate you spending some time. You've got
a perspective that no one else has in the world
on this situation. So I'm not surprised that people are
really reacting positively to the book. I just you know,
(57:51):
it's a fascinating story leading up to that interview as well,
so I hope my listeners will pick up a copy
and give it a read. And it sounds like you've
got an audio version as well that people can look.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Up absolutely, you can get it on Amazon or audible
dot com and you'll be able to hear interview bites too.
So it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
Truly appreciate you coming on. It was.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
It was fun to hear your story and I really
enjoyed reading the book this week as well.
Speaker 3 (58:17):
Thank you, Nick. I'm so happy to hear that and
I'm so happy to be able to have this great
conversation with you.
Speaker 1 (58:32):
Wow, that was Lori k The books called Confessions of
a Rock and Roll Name Dropper My life leading up
to John Lennon's last interview heavy right. That is a
heavy situation, best and worst day of her life.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
I believe it.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
You know, you get an opportunity to talk to a
guy like that, just just amazing And what a sad,
sad thing that happened. We sure could use on London
today in this strange world we live, and I'd love
to hear what you'd have to say about it. It's
the end of the year, we've got some holidays coming up,
(59:12):
end of the year, Happy New Year, all of the things.
This will be the last episode of the year, so
I do want to mention quick that High on Stress
will be back for a show and Mortimer's here in
Minneapolis with our friends the Whiskey Rock and Roll Club,
and that will take place Wednesday, December eighteenth.
Speaker 2 (59:33):
They're doing a Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Residency and asked us to tag along, so I always
loved doing that.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
So come see us.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
High on Stress Mortimers, December eighteenth, music at eight pm.
Hope to see you and we will see you again
next year. This has been nick Leat from Minneapolis Studio
twenty four.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Take care, oh God, that says, break.
Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
Darl, break Charl when you go to see.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Miss a fed up?
Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
Miss aam fed up Pas, time a run the
You are listening to the Figure Eights podcast. I'm your host,
Nick Leet from the band High On Stress out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And the world is weird. I don't know if you've
all been paying attention, but it is.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's been a little trying this year to say, to
say the least, so you know.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Today we have a guest by the name of Lori k.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
She's written a wonderful book called Confessions of a Rock
and Roll Name Dropper, my life leading up to John
Lennon's last interview. I'm an enormous fan of the Beatles,
as pretty much everyone listening to this is as well.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And I'm a big.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
A Lenon guy.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I was been a bigger onen En guy.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I liked his edge, I liked his wit. I like
dway you thought. So really kind of a great moment
here to talk to Laurie. She interviewed John and Yoko
on December eighth, nineteen eighty, just hours before he was
before he was killed outside of the Dakota, New York City,
and this conversation first of while I write her book fantastic.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You should pick it up.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
There's also an audio version where you get your books,
but just going back to that interview that she did
with John on the day that he died, and really
it was kind of amazing to see the way he
looked at the world at that time and how much
it still applies today. So as we get into this
conversation and as we stare down what's to be another
(01:36):
interesting year here in twenty twenty five, this is probably
the last episode I'll release this year, so this may
be the last time I have something up here until
next year. So this is kind of a happy Holiday's,
happy New Year, all of that fun stuff. But I
just want to use his words, John Lennon's words as
you look into twenty twenty five. He talks in his
(01:58):
final interview about projecting positive future and the importance of it.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So let's try to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Let's let's regain our humanity. Let's let's do what's right.
Let's people. People are people, We need to support people,
we need to be forgiving of people, you know, and
let's let's reclaim our humanity Projected Positive Future. Thank you
for listening to the Figure Eights podcast this year. I
(02:27):
look forward to more episodes next year. And without further ado,
I give you Lori K thank you for joining us
(02:53):
on the on the anniversary here, and as I was
just saying for a hit record, you called it the
best and worst day of your life.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So I'm sure this time comes up.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Every year, and it's it's a little bittersweet absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
December eighth, nineteen eighty, the day that I co conducted
for RKO Radio at the Dakota Well what tragically turned
out to be John Lennon's last interview. He was shot
and killed mere hours after our interview ended. So that's
what made it the worst. The best is still because
(03:32):
we had an incredible interview and he was so complimentary
and so validating when it came to all my comments
and questions. He would say things to me like, yes, love,
that's it exactly, and it just made me feel thrilled
like he and Yoko and I had become lifetime friends.
(03:54):
And of course that tragically never was able to happen.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Right, And I definitely want to get into that day itself.
But I just finished your book, I see you've got
the cover behind you, Confessions of a Rock and Roll
Name Dropper, and I read it this week and it
was really really interesting to read. You've had quite the
adventures over the years, and to start with that, you've
(04:20):
had it. You tell me how much you want to
go into this, because it's your life. But you got
an interesting upbringing for sure, different than most.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Absolutely. I was raised by a dysfunctional family, a single
mother who lived with grandparents for quite a while, and
unfortunately she never wanted to have a child. Her husband
left her when he found out that she was pregnant,
so I was basically nothing she ever wanted. So in
(04:50):
order to get away from that, what I did, starting
out as a baby, even before I was a toddler,
listening to rock radio, AM radio, and then when I
was a toddler, I got my very own transistor radio
with earplugs, and it was so exciting because I could
spend the entire day and the entire night in bed
(05:11):
with the plugs in my ears and listen to everybody
I wanted to hear that they were playing on the radio,
you know, everybody from Oh Gosh, Elvis Costello, Little Richard,
you name it, and then of course the Beach Boys
and then finally the Beatles. So yes, my my dysfunctional
family upbringing basically helped my career in a way because
(05:35):
it got me totally in the music and rock radio.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, what you mentioned Elvis Costello, the Beatles, What were
some of those songs that were really pulling you in,
some of your favorites of that time that you looked
for comfortable?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Well, actually I mentioned Elvis Presley, oh, because he was
big when I was a kid, and that was really exciting.
And so many other songs were so important to me.
And in my book, I name all the chapters after
titles of some of my favorite songs. So the chapter
(06:08):
about this is named after the Journey song Raised on radio,
which is exactly what I was. And I heard everything
from as a kid, like I said, from Elvis Presley
to Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly.
And my favorite Buddy Holly song was Peggy Sue. I
(06:28):
actually wanted to change my name from Lori Joe to
Peggy Zoo. I thought that'd be cool. And eventually I
got to listen to the Beach Boys and the Beatles
and that was super thrilling. And then of course as
I got into junior high and high school, there were
so many other bands and artists that I really loved.
Everybody from Neil Young, to David Bowie to the Rolling Stones,
(06:54):
Elton John. I mean, you know, I was just thrilled
with all of them and got to see the bulk
of them, excuse me, in concert. It was great. And
I relied heavily on my transit to radio for years
and years, and my friends and their brothers and sisters
(07:14):
and their family had singles and albums that I got
to go to their house and listen to because of
course my family didn't have that. So that was really thrilling.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Too, gotcha, gotcha? Do you still have that transit to radio?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I wish I did. No'm sorry I don't, but I
do still have a lot of my original vinyl albums,
which I'm happy to say, the ones that weren't destroyed
in earthquakes over the years or lost my moving vans
over the years as I moved across the country or
out of the country. So that's very exciting for me.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You mentioned in your book of your travels and moving
from station to station, city to city.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Where do you sit today?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Well, today, I'm back in Los Angeles. I'm a SoCal gal.
That's where I was raised and that's where I am now,
and I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Nice, nice, and tell us how you got into your
career in music.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Well, I was basically just so excited, like I said,
about music and radio rock radio ever since I was
a kid. But I'm sure that that dawned on me
as a child. Wow, this is what I wanted to do,
This is what I want to be on. But then,
(08:34):
first of all, back in high school, thanks to the
amazing LA FM radio station KMET, I won front row
seats at the Forum to see the Rolling Stones Nicaragua
benefit concert, which they did because, of course, Mick Jagger's
Nicaraguan wife, Bianca, probably had family that was devastated by
(08:57):
the earthquake that hit Nicarago as well, so he decided
to make The Stones part of the benefit. And when
I went to go pick up my tickets that I
won at the radio station, one of my all time
favorite disc jockeys, B Mitchell Read otherwise known on the
air as the Beamer, was on the air then and
(09:20):
invited me into his booth to find out who I
was and my age and my name and everything. And
I started talking to him on the air and he
looked at me and said, Wow, what a great voice.
You should have a radio career, you should be on
the air. So that did it for me. Oh set
me up to work towards that. And then years later,
(09:44):
when I was a journalism student at UC Berkeley, one
of my top professors said to me after I turned
in yet another article that I'd written for the local paper,
the campus paper, he said to me, Laurie, you all
you already know how to be a newswriter. You're a
great newswriter. Why are you bothering to take a class.
(10:06):
You should get an internship. It leads you to a
job right away, that's all you need. So sure enough
he convinced me to go after an internship at KFRC Radio.
They were looking for their very first newsroom intern, and
of course I got it. And shortly after that, they
were so excited about my talent and my ability that
(10:29):
they off fored me a job as their news editor.
And that was really exciting. I got to quit school
and I got to start working, and not only did
I have the news editor job, but I was also
immediately offered the opportunity to do rock radio special. It
turned out to be the longest Beatles special ever created
(10:52):
in the United States for radio, and it was amazing.
It was fourteen hours long. They called it RKO Presents
the Beatles, and I wrote it and I co produced it,
and that was really exciting. And it took about a year,
and then within a year after it aired, they decided
(11:14):
that they want to to syndicate it so it could
air all over the world, not just the country, and
they let us expand it to seventeen hours, so I
didn't writing or interviewing or co producing. And not only that,
but they let us change the title to the one
I'd originally come up with and wanted to use, which
is the Beatles from Liverpool to Legend. And that's what
(11:37):
people all over the world still know.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Nice And what year was that when that special came out?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Well, the original special came out late in seventy seven,
and the syndicated one came out probably just over a
year later.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Gotcha? And is that still available somewhere to hear? Is
it how anywhere or streaming?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I believe there are pieces of it that are still
available online, but the company that now owns RKO Radio
specials and things like that hasn't put it out, so no,
it's not officially out. It's, like I said, pieces of
it are on YouTube that kind of thing, and unfortunately
(12:22):
I can't recommend that because that's illegal. But there are
pieces and mentions of it on my website as well,
which is Confessions of a rock and Roll name Dropper
dot Com. And I should mention that my book's title
is Confessions of a rock and Roll namdropper dot Com
My life leading up to John Lennon's last interview.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Right wow.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Hopefully at some point that organization releases that special would
be really fascinating to listen to. And in reading your
book you got into the It must have felt great,
you know, coming from where you'd come from, getting your
arm the rock and roll wrapping its arms around you,
and then getting that positive reinforcement from people in music,
(13:07):
so it's the thing you love and you're getting that
was just magical at the time. Do you know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
In regards to your ability and guilty early on voice,
you know, if you've been able to track that back anywhere,
just just something to have.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, my grandparents were into music, and so as a baby,
I was listening to the songs and uh and TV
shows that they liked, which weren't rock and roll, but
still it was something that helped me with it, and
my mother was never into rock and roll. She was
only into Frank Sinatra, which I've never been into, so
(13:55):
so that didn't help. So basically it was all myself
that that put that in, and so many of my
friends uh and and even some relatives because I got
to hear uh and watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
show thanks to my aunt when I was over at
their house, and that was really thrilling.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So yeah, that's that's one of those moments you hear
about that people time stopped. I wasn't around for it,
but I've heard some stories, so you knew it was
going to be on. Everybody was gathering around the TV
to see it. I assume I've heard some stories where
people were like, you know, the one time they were
(14:37):
allowed to step away from the table, that sort of thing.
So what was it like for you? Did you purposely
go over there to watch it? It was a big
event that everybody was getting ready for. You know, what
did that day look like for you?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
It was thrilling, and I knew the Beatles were going
to be on Ed Sullivan, So I spent a lot
of weekends away from my mother anyway, So that one
was with my aunt and her husband and my cousins,
and they of course were going to watch Ed Sullivan
and the cousins were really excited about seeing the Beatles,
and so it helped. It helped us start me off.
(15:12):
I'd already listened to them tons of time on the
radio and tried to win contests. For example, shortly afterwards,
things like they were giving away when the Beatles played
in Los Angeles and Hollywood Bowl, they were giving away
radio station said things like pieces of sheets and pillowcases
(15:36):
at each of the Beatles had used while they were
staying at a hotel or rental houses in town. And
unfortunately I never won anybody. It was still exciting to
think about trying to.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Well in your career led you to meeting some of
these legends or you know, either in person or over
the phone. Early on you mentioned this, so Mick Jagger,
you got to talk to Mick Jagger.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Correct, I did, and that was like, well, it was
really exciting because not only could I tell him, Wow,
I want tickets to your Nicaragua benefit. And that was
the first Stone show I've ever seen, and I've seen
so many since, and it's been so thrilling. And actually,
just to let you know, I saw the Stones fairly
(16:23):
recently and they're still incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, saw I'm ten years ago. It's amazing still.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And another great thing about talking to Mick Jagger was
he called me because we were going to be interviewing him.
I was going to be interviewing him for the Top
one hundred of the Seventies, the show that I was
writing also for r KO Radio and Drake Chanalt and
he called right before I was about to go on
(16:51):
the air a newscast and I said, Gee, do you
want me to call you back or do you want
to call me back? And he said, no, just keep
the phone on. Oh, listen to you, and he did,
and he complimented me afterwards. It was so thrilling. So
I've always been a super huge fan of Mick Jagger
and even more after that.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, I was amazed ten years ago seeing him. That
guy still doesn't sit still. You go see these bands
of early twenties something folks, and they have not near
the energy level of Micchegger at this point. It's just
amazing what that guy has.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And that had to been pretty damn nerve wracking to
know that Micjagger was do your thing.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It made me really really nervous, but like I said,
he still complimented me, and so it was great. So
that's all off.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You can carry that around with you forever. That's pretty amazing.
And then Bowie called you and this.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Was well first before we get to Bowie the Nick
Roguin benefit.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
What year was that? What was the era of Stones?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You know, it's funny with the band, like the Stones
have been around so long, he got these different pop gets,
some different eras and different you know, it kind of
remained Stones the whole time, but there are some variations
of how they operated and what kind of music they
were putting out.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
What era was that? Was that around the time of exile.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Or January nineteen seventy three, okay, And it was really
really thrilling. I was in high school and to be
able to do that. And shortly after that I got
to see David Bowie the East Artist tour that was
at the Long Beach Arena, and I had already become
a huge Bowie fan thanks to the radio and album,
(18:36):
but seeing him live was amazing. It was incredible live
and he looked great and he dressed great and he
danced great, and he's saying great was it was super cool?
And I enjoyed seeing him a super number of times
over the years as well.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And you talked to Bowie, right, you interviewed him.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yes, that was a great phone conversation as well also
for the top one hundred of this seventies. And he
was also super excited to hear about my experience seeing
him so many times and especially part of the Ziggy
Stardis tour. And it was great. And I think he's
a late, great, incredible artist.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, And just the way that that man went.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Out was so bowy releasing that album on what was
it Friday, and then on Monday he passes away. I'm like,
that man's art went up until the last point and
I think that is just an amazing, you know, amazing
way to go and that album is amazing. Have you
(19:43):
spent much time with that last record?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Is I still do? Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, it's so it's it's it's a hard listen, but
it's amazing. What a great way to go out with
just top shelf material, the messages, you know, really taking
in consideration where he was at at the end of
his life. There it was just amazing art. And you
should not be surprised when it comes to Bowie that
(20:08):
he would that he would align his life in a
way because it was art from the beginning to the end,
so it's pretty magical. You mentioned in your book you
interviewed George Harrison. Was this also for the seventies or
was it for the Seventies Special or was this something different.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Late nineteen seventy eight, in December I interviewed George Harrison
not only for Top one hundred of the seventies, but
also to add to the syndicated version of Our Beatles Special,
which is The Beatles from Liverpool The Legend. And that
was a super long interview compared to the other two
and other two meaning Mick Jagger and David Bowie. And
(20:47):
George was incredible to talk to because he had just
married Olivia and before ly before shortly before that, they'd
had their son, Danny, and he was so excited about
being a daddy and being able to stay home instead
of going on tour and raising his son. And in
(21:08):
his work, it's gardening. He loved gardening, so there he
was with his wife and his son and his garden
and it was just thrilling to hear everything about him
and although he loved, loved doing his latest album, which
he told me did not have a title, he was
just going to call it George Harrison because that's how
people went into the stores and asked, yeah, the latest
(21:30):
George Harrison album anyway, So that was very exciting for
him too, and that was a wonderful interview. And then
not long after that, in June of nineteen seventy nine,
I was sent to London by RKO Radio along with
Dave Sholin, our music director, and my co interviewer and
(21:52):
our engineer producer Ron Hummel. We were sent to London
to interview Paul and Linda McCartney and their latest lineup
of Wings that included of course, the late great Denny Lane.
And that was an amazing interview. They were so loving
and so caring about each other, not just in their
(22:13):
relationship and having kids together, but also because they loved
recording together, they loved songwriting together, and they loved going
out on the road and performing together. Paul said, there,
I am on the road with my best friend, and
that was really cool to hear. So an amazing interview,
(22:37):
and not only that, but Paul and Linda were both
very loving to me too and hugging and kissing, and
oh it was great.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
As a Beatles fan.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
That had been pretty amazing to get to that point
when you heard you were going to interview Harrison. You
know what was going through your head at that point,
like could you even believe that your luck that you
were going to be able to talk to a Beatle?
You know, how did that conversation come up? When they said, hey,
we need you to talk to George.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I was thrilled and it was right away pretty much.
It was not a long wait at all before the interview,
so I didn't have time to get too crazy about it.
But I had a lot of time to do more
research and come up with more questions and it was
just wonderful to talk to him. And I also came
(23:26):
up with all the questions for our Paul and Lynda
McCartney interview too, and that was really thrilling. And then
after that I was able to interview George Martin, their
incredible producer, and that was in let's see January of
nineteen eighty and it was right after his book had
(23:50):
come out, which is all you need is Ears and
it was all about being with the Beatles and getting
to know them and getting to start working with them
and all the way up through Abbey Road and let
it be and that was thrilling. And plus he was
a fan of the Beatles from Liverpool to Legend are
super long Beatles Special And he was so complimentary and
(24:12):
he gave me such a great autograph in the copy
of his book that I had, and he was wonderful
to talk to and it just made me so sad
years later when he passed away. And like I said,
that was January of nineteen eighty and at the end
of that year, the forty fourth anniversary, December eighth, that
(24:36):
was our John Lennon yoko Ono interview and that was
amazing as well at the Dakota.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, and you mentioned in your book.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I believe you asked John why he chose you, or
one of your colleagues asked John, is that accurate? Why
were you chosen for that interview?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Well? I know why we were chosen. Basically, it was
not only because we'd written the incredibly Long Beatles Special
for RKO Radio and all over the world, but also
because we'd interviewed Paul McCartney just you know, not even
that long before, just over a year before. And also
(25:20):
I had interviewed George Harrison and George Martin and that
was thrilling, no doubt. And also Dave Sholeen, incredible music director,
was a good friend of Warner Brothers Geffen Records exec
Bert Keene, and he's the one who put it together.
(25:41):
So we definitely became the only national radio team to
interview John and Yoko in the United States. There had
been a BBC British interview a week couple of weeks before,
but we were the very last interview. And sad to.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Say, I'd heard so many bits and pieces of your
interview over the years because they're you.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Know, in different documentaries and different things.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
So I actually spent last night going back and I
found the whole thing online, which was kind of interesting
because I had not heard the whole thing from front
to back, just a lot of the main things that
you've heard over the years.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Well, I have to tell you that when you hear
it online, like I said, it's illegal because it's not
RKO Radio or the company that owns it now putting
it out. So number one, it's not the complete interview.
It's not four hours plus and it's not the fully best.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Audio and everything else.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, unfortunately, but people still can hear pieces. But if
you want to hear pieces from the original interview, the
best quality sounding you can listen to my self voiced
audiobook of Confessions of a Rock and Roll Name Dropper,
My life leading up to John Lennon's Last Interview, which
not only features plenty of original interview bites from John
(27:11):
Lennon and Yoko, but also Paul and Linda and George
Harrison and George Martin and so many other incredible rock
stars and bands that I interviewed.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, four hours. So that complete interview was four hours long.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
And we spent more time with them than that because
after the interview ended, we were still hanging out. We
were taking photos together, we were getting autographs, We were
making plans to get together in a couple of weeks
when John and Yoko were going to be out on
the West Coast, and we all worked it out that
(27:48):
we were going to go eat dinner with John and
Yoko at Yoko's favorite Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. And
I was so thrilled because, like I said that meant
we were going to be friends for and we weren't
going to be doing an interview anymore. We were going
to be talking about personal things. And I had so
much in common with John, the way we were both
(28:10):
family raised or not raised, and also we'd spend both
of us so much time loving Bally that's where I
was living and studying dance, which is also in my book.
I was a Balanese dance student, and so I was
really looking forward to discussing that with them, and also
with Yoko about their relationship, and hopefully they were going
(28:33):
to tell me how to get in a good relationship
and make it last, because I hadn't been able to
do that yet. And that's also all in my book.
So sex and drugs and rock and roll a big
part of my book.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
It's all there. Looking back. Obviously, you're a huge Beatles fan.
Did you have a favorite Beatle or just love them all?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I loved them all, to be very honest, and I
still do. You know. Of course, the ones that passed away,
George Harrison and John Lennon are deepest in my heart
because there's no way I can still see them. And thankfully,
even though I never got to interview Ringo. This past July,
(29:17):
his eighty fourth birthday, he had yet another outdoor birthday
celebration at a ARC in Beverly Hills, where he donated
a incredible statue that he made, which is a big
hand with fingers, and he stood in front of it
(29:37):
and talked to everybody all at once, and that was
really cool to be able to be there and see
him close up. And I was able to leave a
signed copy of my book for him with one of
his staff members, So I keep hoping that he's going
to read it. He's going to love it. And I
really had to talk to him one day.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
So you got to complete the whole set. He got
one beatle left. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I'm a
huge Beatles fan. My favorites are the Beatles and prints
and John Lennon's my favorite beatle, love them all, John
Lennon's my favorite. You talked about the nerves going into
(30:16):
that interview, right. I had the opportunity a couple of
times to stand next to Prince and I could not
say a.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Word to the dude because I.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
It would have ruined years of of you know, if
it went the wrong way. Right, and Lennon, you know,
obviously highly, highly intellectual, smart witty, can be a little
biting at times, you know, all of that stuff coming
into this thing. You know in the interviews post Beatles
(30:47):
that that kind of early seventies period he was he
was pretty upset with.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
The weight of the world, the way things were going.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You could tell, you know, he was separating himself from
the Beatles and Paul and everything else. And when you
listen to those things, that are very interesting to see
what he has to say, because he's just his insight
is amazing. It's one of the things I love most
about him is listening to him talk about different subjects
beyond the fact that he was an incredible songwriter and singer.
(31:19):
By that period, like he had taken that five years off,
they had the last weekend and he had taken time
off to ray Sean, and there really wasn't a lot
of interviews out there to listen to of what he
had going on. So I'm assuming you going into that
interview everything that you had heard from him over the
last five years or ten years or so had a
(31:41):
little bite to it, right.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So were you a little nervous walking into that room?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Knowing that I got to be able to hang with
this guy who's so witty, so biting, so intelligent and
so talented. You know, what were your thoughts walking into
the Dakota that morning.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Well, I'd been somewhat terrified on our flight over the
night before because I was coming up with the questions
to ask, and we'd been told, don't talk about the Beatles,
don't talk about John's past, and I knew not to
because I was reading the Playboy interview he'd done and
he was so obviously upset with the writer for bringing
(32:17):
all that stuff up. So I thought, Okay, I got
to be really careful and not do that. And I
want John to think that I'm intellectual as well and
that I'm smart, and so I made sure not to.
And the cool thing was that John brought it up himself.
He brought up the Beatles, he brought up his first
(32:37):
meeting with Paul McCartney and the long story of his
first meeting with Yoko Ono. And it was really exciting
because the minute he came in to the office from
his photo session upstairs, which Yoko came down from first,
and then John came in about half an hour to
(32:59):
fo forty minutes later, and he opened the door slightly,
and I'd already been talking to Yoko about a lot
of things, and he stuck his nose through the door
and you could see his glasses sticking through, and just
to be funny, I looked at him and said, can
you tell we're in the middle of an interview? And
he started laughing, and I started laughing, and he came
(33:21):
and he sat right next to me on the love seat,
right in front of the cool coffee table they had there,
this big, long glass one, and I was so thrilled,
and he immediately started looking at me over his glasses
and smiling, and like I said before, he started saying
things to me. With every comment and question I had, yes, exactly, Laurie,
(33:46):
love that exactly. And it was so thrilling to be
validated like that. I don't think I ever had in
an interview before. Felt so encouraged about everything that I
wanted to know. And the interesting thing is, in the beginning,
our Warner brothers, Geffen exac Bert King had a son
(34:09):
just about the same age as Sean John and Yoko's son,
who was five at the time, So of course the
first things that he wanted us to ask was all
about being a house husband and a daddy, and John
was very encouraging, and it went on for quite a while,
but then I just sensed no, it was time to
(34:31):
change the subject, so I said to him, I want
to ask you, John, about getting an urge to make
music again. And I emphasized that, and John burst in
with his super loud, funny and affectionate reply, Oh, it
came over me all of a sudden love. I don't
know what came over me. And everyone laughed while I
(34:53):
reacted confidently to his endearing response, and I said, I know,
it's like you were possessed and he said, I was
possessed by this rock and roll devil. And he said
and everybody in the room laughed again, and then he said,
was that your question? And he asked that really politely.
Did I interrupt you? And I said, no, you got it,
(35:15):
And I was smiling like crazy as he and Yoko
went on to discuss their work and the love that
went into creating Double Fantasy together, and John came in
again and said, just suddenly, I had, like, if you'll
pardon the expression, a diarrhea of creativity. And we all
(35:37):
started laughing again as John went on to describe talking
to Yoko about the inspiration for their songs and how
they discussed going back into the studio but didn't have
the material, and he said, but I wasn't worried about
it because I thought, well, I haven't done it in
a long time. Maybe if I switch into that, they'll
(35:59):
be something there. And it just sort of came, he said,
And I called her because I was in Bermuda with
Sean at the time and she was here in New York.
And I called her and said, well, look, we were
talking about recording, and it must have triggered something off
here because I'm getting all this stuff all of a sudden,
and I started singing to her down on the phone
(36:23):
or playing a cassette for her. And then John echoed
what Yoko had been telling us just before he arrived,
that she would call him back a couple of hours
later and tell him how when he sang a song
to her like I'm Losing You, she was inspired to
come up with I'm Moving On, which she would then
sing to him. And John said, and then I'd be
(36:46):
swimming and something else would come up, like starting over.
As Yoko said it was really truly a dialogue in
that sense. And she said, I would make one song
and sing it to him over the phone, and then
he reacts to that in a way, and then he
would write another song and vice versa. Yeah, and that
was thrilling to hear because Double Fantasy was such an
(37:09):
incredible album and it gave everybody in a relationship the
idea that yes, they should have dialogues with their husband
or their wife or girlfriend or boyfriend as well. So
John and Yoko got to let people know now that
they were back together, that this is what it took
(37:29):
to have a great relationship again, a great dialogue, right.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And he talks a lot in there about not presenting
themselves as the perfect couple, and they have arguments like
everybody else and all of that, which I think just
his openness.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Is a great thing. People need to hear that stuff.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
So when I'm listening to this thing, there's a lot
of hope in his voice and a lot of what
is going on today in this world, which is, I
don't know what's to itself, not a great time in history.
It Just listening to this, I could not help but
(38:06):
think about what he would have to say about this
and how much what he said forty four years ago
today still applies, Like how incredibly ahead of his time
he was in every possible way, but just how incredibly
spot on he was about politics and people and relationships
(38:29):
and everything. But he really, you know, I talked about
how he kind of had that chip on his shoulder
in those early seventies interviews, your interview, he was playful.
Maybe it was because you gave him shit when he
walked in, but he was playful. He was choking, he
was having fun. He was talking about his past. He
(38:50):
was talking about the future and how we need to
project positivity for the future, which I think we can
all you know, should really hold on today. We need
to project positives. So his attitude that day was so
incredibly infectious.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
He obviously liked this all me and date Abe and
Ron and Bert, and as I said, he was sitting
right next to me and looking at me so much
throughout the day, and that was thrilling. And one of
the saddest things he did say during our interview was
that he hoped to God that Yoko didn't die before
(39:26):
he did, even though she was older than him, that
he passed away before she did. And sad to say
that happened mere hours later when he was shot and killed,
which broke my heart and everybody else's who was a
huge fan of his, and of course I still.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Am still to this day.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I went on Facebook this morning and my friend the
Wall on Facebook, all my friends posting pictures of Lenin
and quotes. It's just his legacy, obviously, the Beatles legacy
will never go away. Every my kids love the Beatles,
every kid loves the Beatles that they're one of those
things that's never going to go away. Like there are
a lot of things that will kind of fade off,
(40:06):
become less popular, the Beatles will not be one of
those things.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Every generation carries it forward.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
One of the most one of the most amazing things
I got to do this year was go to a
theater and see A Hard Day's Night. They put it
out again for the anniversary, and it was so cool
to see it again, not just on TV but on
a huge movie screen, and it was great the music
(40:33):
and seeing them all, and of course I started crying
because I immediately remembered being with John Lennon and how sad
and guilty I felt after he was shot and killed,
and that's the thing. I just December eighth is just
such a major date for me, and that's the reason
(40:53):
that I chose that date to have it be the
official release date of my book. So my book has
been out a year now, and I share that anniversary
with our John Lennon interview right right.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
And I appreciate you coming on on a day because
I you know, it's forty four years, but I can't
imagine it gets much easier knowing that you spent the
day with him and the and what happened afterwards. And
one of the things that I thought was interesting about
the interview as well is the toy that you brought
for Sean, because you can hear him playing around with
it in the interview and laughing and having a good
(41:29):
time with it. So just that playful spirit he had
that day was just so cool. He felt so light,
He felt he felt like he was in a comfortable
spot in his life.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
And we all have.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Good days and bad days and sideways and everything else,
but there definitely was an aura to him that day
in that interview that felt like he was comfortable. And
I can't imagine you don't know the guy I never
knew the guy, but I can't imagine he was probably
very comfortable throughout his life for many reasons his childhood,
know that the whirlwind of the Beatles, what came afterwards,
(42:04):
you know, there were drugs in there that he had
to work through, divorce, all of the things, Like, he
had a lot of stuff on his plate throughout his life,
and it was so heartwarming to hear him sound so
positive and excited for the future and so happy and
just light so that which obviously makes the whole thing
(42:25):
even more tragic, right, because you know, when you're younger,
you're like, forty is forties old, and you're like, you know,
I'm forty five, and I'm like, forty is not even
close to old, not even close. So it's just so
shocking still to this day and so tragic.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
One of the most thrilling things about being there with
John and Yogo, especially John, was their reaction to the
toy that I had brought for John, excuse me, their
reaction to the toy that I had brought for their son, Sean,
who at five years old, was not with us that day.
He was out with his nanny having lunch or doing whatever,
(43:03):
and I brought him a wind up metal, fire breathing
dragon that immediately when Yoko saw it, said, oh, John
is going to love this. He may not want to
give it to Sean. He may want to keep it
for himself. And that's exactly what Sean said, excuse me,
That's exactly what John said when he started playing with
(43:26):
it and making it run up and down, up and
down the coffee table right in front of us on
the love seat, and watching it breathe and listening to it,
and he said, I don't know if I want to
give it to Sean. I may want to just keep
this for myself. So one thing I couldn't help but
wonder for years afterwards, was after John was shot and killed,
(43:48):
did Yoko give it to Sean? And I never found
out because I never had any following relationship with Sean
ran into him until this year. February of this year,
I got to meet him. I was screening Yeah, at
the screening of his short animated film War Is Over
(44:12):
that eventually won the Academy Award. And when I told
him that I was the person who had done the
last interview with his father, he was really happy to
meet me, and I gave him a copy, a signed
copy of my book for him and to give to
his mother. And he was thrilled about that and excited
(44:33):
looking forward to reading to it too. And I asked him,
I said, Sean, one thing I have to know. Did
your mother by any chance give you the toy that
I brought for you that day December eighth, nineteen eighty
And he said toy? What toy was that? And I said, oh,
it was a wind up fire breathing dragon, and he said,
(44:56):
oh my god, that was my favorite toy as a child.
I loved it. I kept it for years, and I
was so thrilled to hear that it basically improved my
life and made me feel even a bit better about
that day because John and Yoko were thrilled, and it
turned out Sean was thrilled. And I should also add
that John and Yoko were thrilled that I had brought
(45:18):
my copy of Yoko's book Grapepruit, which I had, and
Yoko was so excited she couldn't wait to autograph it
for me, and she said John was going to be
thrilled too, because they hadn't seen a copy in years
and years. And then John came and he saw it
and he said, oh my god, Laurie, can I autograph
(45:40):
it too, along with Yogo because I did the introduction
for the book. And I said, of course, that'd be great.
I can't wait. And he said I love it when
people autograph their books for me, my friends especially, And
I said, well, John, when I write my book, I
will definitely autograph and send you a copy. And he
looked at me and pushed down his glasses again and said, great,
(46:05):
LORI great. And that's made me feel terrific. Ever since,
even though it's taken me forty years since then to
start writing my book, all I can think about is, oh,
if only I could send it to John in they
have it.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Well, well, I think what you just said is pretty
remarkable because you you know, you can't give it to John,
but you gave it to Sean, and did you mention
you game one to Yoko as well? So yeah, you know,
in a way, you made good on your promise, which
I think you know is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Well, actually it's the same copy, Okay, I give Sean
that hopefully went to Yoko too, so but unfortunately I
haven't had contact with Yoko because I can only imagine
that I remind her of the worst day in her life,
so I can't blame her.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, no, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
That's probably you know, It's it's interesting because you know,
going into that interview, you were probably thinking, I'm going
to meet John Lennon today, which not many people can
say they've ever been in that situation. But also it
ties you to such a day in history too, So
it's just but you know, that interview though, it's like
(47:17):
it's like I said, it's there's something about it that
I just think there's almost a piece to it that
I just love about that interview, And with everything that
happened and how horrible it was, it's you know, if
you're you know, I'm glad he seemed happy, you know
what I mean that day, Like he seemed like he
was in a good space, got through the other side
(47:40):
of a lot of things, and and you know, he
should have had another forty forty five years, but you know,
taking comfort in the fact that you know he was
in a good place and having a good time.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
And you know, how did that day end for you?
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Then?
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Like you were there for four hours, it sounds like
you hit it off, you had some plans San Francisco.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
How did it end, Well, it was over four hours
that we were there all.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Again, four hours was the interview. But you were there, yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
But what happened was is that John and Yoko had
a recording studio session booked for that early evening, and unfortunately,
Yoko got a call saying that her limo driver wasn't
going to be able to take them, so she asked
us if we could drop them off at the recording studio.
(48:27):
And the guys that I was with were the ones
who were going to take the limo to the airport
because they were going back to the West Coast that night.
I was staying in New York that evening to have
dinner with and stay with a very good friend of
mine who just moved there, and so the guy said, yes,
of course, we'll drop you on our way to the airport.
(48:49):
So we started walking out of the Dakota shortly after that,
and the first thing that happened to me was this
obviously creepy guy I came up and looked at me
right in the face and said, did you talk to him?
Did you get his autograph? What do you say to you?
Did you talk to him, did you get his autograph?
What do you say to you? And I just automatically
(49:12):
disliked him, and you know, I didn't push him away,
but I walked away. And then the guys came out
and Bert keene Are Geffen Warner Brothers Exach gave that
creepy guy a copy of Double Fantasy, and when John
and Yogo came out shortly afterwards, a mere minute, John
(49:36):
signed it for him to shut the guy up too,
And then we all walked over to the limo, me
and the guys and John and Yoko and hugged and
said goodbye and can't wait to see you in a
couple of weeks. And it was just sighing, Oh God,
I'm so sad it's over, and and they got in
(49:56):
the limo and drove away with the guys, and I
started walking to my friend's office, and that creepy guy
started following me again and asking me the same things.
Did you talk to him? Did you get his autograph?
What do you say? And I kept telling him to
shut up and leave me alone and stop following me,
but he kept following me, and I got, you know,
(50:18):
nearly a block away, and finally I turned around, and
acted like I was gonna smack him, so he backed
up and finally stopped following me, and I continued walking
to my friend's office, thinking, God, I really should have
gone to the security department at the Dakota and told
them there's this guy there that you need to get
(50:40):
rid of because he's going to be a pain in
the ass for everybody there. But I didn't do that,
and my friend and I went out to dinner. I
told him how incredible the interview was, and then when
we got back to his apartment, as he was about
to open the door, he said, just so you know,
I leave the radio on. Somebody breaks in, they'll think
(51:02):
I'm home and they'll go away. And he opened the
door and the radio was on, but the music stopped
within about three seconds, and all of a sudden, a
reporter came on and said John Lennon's been shot and
he's in the hospital. And I went, oh, my god,
and I ran out into the street and immediately took
(51:22):
a cab to the Roosevelt Hospital. And when I got there,
I looked through the big glass door in front and
there was Yoko holding on to a friend and crying
hysterically and just looking at her. As much as I
wanted to go in and give her a hug, I
thought to myself, no, that will make her feel worse
seeing me. And I just have this feeling seeing her
(51:45):
being upset as much as she is that John doesn't
wasn't just shot. He's been killed. And so I immediately
went out and went to the photo booth right next door,
called the RKO radio network in New York and they said, oh,
(52:05):
come over immediately, and I did, and I spent the
night there, staying up all night doing interviews all over
the country and actually all over the world. And eventually
on the news they reported that, yes, John had been
shot and killed, and they showed the guy that admitted
to killing him, and he'd been arrested. And I looked,
(52:28):
and sure enough it was that asshole who'd been bugging
me and following me. And I've felt incredibly guilty ever since,
forty four years since, I still feel guilt all over
my shoulders and my head, because yes, I should have
reported him to the security department, and maybe they would
have called the police to get rid of him, or
(52:49):
maybe they would have looked at him and been able
to see in the coat that he was wearing that
he had a gun in his pocket, which I didn't,
so I felt terrible. The next morning, RKO got a
call saying, oh, we want Lori k who did the
last interview, to be on the Today Show this morning.
(53:11):
So I was. And it was tragic, and I felt
like crying the whole time, but I was. And then
right after it ended, I immediately flew back to San Francisco
and needed to start listening to the interview that we'd done,
which I had a copy of, and start writing the
special that was going to air as soon as possible,
(53:34):
which I titled John Lennon. Then The Memory, which was
a three hour special in itself and included a lot
of our interview, our wonderful interview together, and it aired
six days after John was shot and killed on the
Sunday afterwards.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
That would be pretty tough to go back and listen
to edit that thing, right after all that had happened,
to turn that audio on and here's you know how
he was presenting that that day. So you had to
turn that thing around pretty fast, like a couple of days,
it sounds like before it was on the air.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Well, it took me a couple of days to write
a special and choose the parts of the interview to
use and dedicate it to Yoko Ono and all that,
and then Dave Sholin voiced it, which was really cool,
and Ron Hammel produced it, and of course I listened
to it once it aired, and all I could think
about while it was hearing was how John had told
(54:28):
us that he couldn't wait to hear our interview on
the radio, and oh, it just made me cry.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yeah, well, it's it sucks that you've carried that guilt
with you all this time.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
I can understand your perspective of where you were at
at that time, but you know, if you live in
a major city, there's always some creep.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
Right wherever you go.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
You're walking on the street, and your initial thought is
get away from the creep.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
So, like, you know, you're not you can't tell the.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
Future, So it's it's it's terrible that you've had to
carry that with you because it's obviously not your fault, but.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Just a horrific, horrific tragedy.
Speaker 3 (55:13):
Well, as much as I've tried and people have helped
me try to not feel guilty, I still do, and
no doubt, I always still will.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Yeah, I'm sorry about that. That's that's rough.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
So now you've you've written the book, you've got the
book out. What's been the reaction to that book? You
mentioned it was released one year ago today, So what's
been the reaction. What's been your year like since it's
been released.
Speaker 3 (55:42):
Well, I've done tons of not just podcast interviews, but
online and print interviews and reviews, and TV and even
movie appearances and documentaries and and so I've been able
to talk about it a lot, and it's all mentioned
(56:02):
and featured on my website, and I've done a lot
of events like book signings and an incredible book launch
that I did at a great store here on the
Sunset Strip called book Soup. And my book has been
actually fairly successful, and happy to say, my publisher says
(56:23):
it's the best of the ones that they're dealing with,
so that's great. And Amazon, where it's available, also has
made me one of the top one hundred of their
thousands of Beatles related books, so I'm one of their
best sellers there. That's good to know. And it's just
(56:47):
done really well. And I've gotten a lot of reviews
from readers online on Amazon or Goodreads or Barnes and
Noble or so many other bookstores and everything, and that's
really exciting. So I hope plenty more people read it,
and plenty more people really enjoy it, and you know,
(57:10):
read about my life story all wrapped around what tragically
turned out to be John Lennon's last interview, and I'll
tell people the name again and Confessions of a rock
and roll name dropper, my life leading up to John
Lennon's last interview.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Well, I thank you for coming on here.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
Like I mentioned, it is, it is the anniversary, so
thank you for spending the day. I hope, you know,
going on these podcasts and getting interviewed and doing all
these things and talking about it helps you in some way.
But I really appreciate you spending some time. You've got
a perspective that no one else has in the world
on this situation. So I'm not surprised that people are
really reacting positively to the book. I just you know,
(57:51):
it's a fascinating story leading up to that interview as well,
so I hope my listeners will pick up a copy
and give it a read. And it sounds like you've
got an audio version as well that people can look.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Up absolutely, you can get it on Amazon or audible
dot com and you'll be able to hear interview bites too.
So it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
Truly appreciate you coming on. It was.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
It was fun to hear your story and I really
enjoyed reading the book this week as well.
Speaker 3 (58:17):
Thank you, Nick. I'm so happy to hear that and
I'm so happy to be able to have this great
conversation with you.
Speaker 1 (58:32):
Wow, that was Lori k The books called Confessions of
a Rock and Roll Name Dropper My life leading up
to John Lennon's last interview heavy right. That is a
heavy situation, best and worst day of her life.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
I believe it.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
You know, you get an opportunity to talk to a
guy like that, just just amazing And what a sad,
sad thing that happened. We sure could use on London
today in this strange world we live, and I'd love
to hear what you'd have to say about it. It's
the end of the year, we've got some holidays coming up,
(59:12):
end of the year, Happy New Year, all of the things.
This will be the last episode of the year, so
I do want to mention quick that High on Stress
will be back for a show and Mortimer's here in
Minneapolis with our friends the Whiskey Rock and Roll Club,
and that will take place Wednesday, December eighteenth.
Speaker 2 (59:33):
They're doing a Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Residency and asked us to tag along, so I always
loved doing that.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
So come see us.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
High on Stress Mortimers, December eighteenth, music at eight pm.
Hope to see you and we will see you again
next year. This has been nick Leat from Minneapolis Studio
twenty four.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Take care, oh God, that says, break.
Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
Darl, break Charl when you go to see.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Miss a fed up?
Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
Miss aam fed up Pas, time a run the
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