Paul McCartney has explained why he called the death of John Lennon a “drag” when interviewed shortly after the news broke.
Lennon, who was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980, had been entering the archway of The Dakota in New York City. Lennon, who was just 40 when he was killed, was shot five times by Chapman. Chapman, now 69, remains behind bars for the murder. Shortly after the killing, McCartney was asked about the death of his former Beatles bandmate, and was quoted as saying: “Well, it’s a drag.” Years later, he elaborated on the quote and says the “shock” of his writing partner’s death prompted the response.
In an interview with Playboy Magazine from 1984, McCartney was asked about the quote and, alongside Linda McCartney, gave an explanation. He said: “What happened was we heard the news that morning and, strangely enough, all of us… the three Beatles, friends of John’s… all of us reacted in the same way. Separately.
“Everyone just went to work that day. All of us. Nobody could stay home with that news. We all had to go to work and be with people we knew. Couldn’t bear it. We just had to keep going. So I went in and did a day’s work in a kind of shock. And as I was coming out of the studio later, there was a reporter, and as we were driving away, he just stuck the microphone in the window and shouted, ‘What do you think about John’s death?’
“I had just finished a whole day in shock, and I said, ‘It’s a drag.’ I meant drag in the heaviest sense of the word, you know: ‘It’s a–DRAG.’ But, you know, when you look at that in print, it says, ‘Yes, it’s a drag.’ Matter of fact.”
He added: “We just went home. We just looked at all the news on the telly, and we sat there with all the kids, just crying all evening. Just couldn’t handle it, really.”
The Wings frontman went on to recall the last conversation he had with Lennon, which he described as a “consoling factor”. He said: “Yes. That is a nice thing, a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out.
“But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn’t have any kind of blowup. It could have easily been one of the other phone calls, when we blew up at each other and slammed the phone down.
“It was just a very happy conversation about his family, my family. Enjoying his life very much; Sean was a very big part of it. And thinking about getting on with his career. I remember he said, ‘Oh, God, I’m like Aunt Mimi, padding round here in me dressing gown’ …robe, as he called it, cuz he was picking up the American vernacular… ‘feeding the cats in me robe and cooking and putting a cup of tea on. This housewife wants a career!’ It was that time for him. He was about to launch Double Fantasy”
McCartney also reflected on the death of his mother, which prompted a similarly matter of fact response which he has “never forgiven” himself for. He said: “When my mum died, I said, ‘What are we going to do for money?’ And I’ve never forgiven myself for that.
“Really, deep down, you know, I never have quite forgiven myself for that. But that’s all I could say then. It’s like a lot of kids; when you tell them someone’s died, they laugh.”
