Happy 75th Birthday John Lennon: The Night A Beatle Met Jerry Garcia

We originally published this piece on October 9, 2013; but it’s too good of a story not to share again. Plus, we’ve added an update at the bottom with additional thoughts on the Lennon/Garcia meeting.

Today marks what would’ve been John Lennon’s 75th birthday if he hadn’t been tragically murdered in 1980. It’s easy to ponder “what could’ve been” if Lennon survived his assassination or it never happened. Considering the success of his Double Fantasy album, which was released three weeks before his death, signs pointed towards John hitting the road for the first time since The Beatles stopped touring in 1966. In honor of the peace-loving Lennon’s birthday we wanted to share a story showing the appreciation John had for Jerry Garcia and vice versa.

In 2005 Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s son Justin wrote a post on Blogcritics.org about an encounter Lennon had with Garcia. Jerry had covered John’s “Imagine” just after the Lennon’s second solo album was released and also recorded a version of the tune with Merl Saunders for Saunders’ Heavy Turbulence LP in 1972. As Kreutzmann recounts, Lennon was appreciative that Garcia was the first artist to cover one of his solo songs and came by a Jerry Garcia Band show in New York City to thank him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6SaCZs0oxs

Justin explains that Jerry and John hit it off and even discussed a potential sit-in, “After the show they talked for a while and Jerry invited John to come back the next night to join him on stage. John said he would return the following day and do a sound check with the Garcia Band so they could work up a few tunes.” Unfortunately Lennon never turned up the next day – another one of rock’s “what could’ve beens.” Both Garcia’s JGB and the Grateful Dead covered plenty of Beatles songs before Jerry passed in 1995. Here’s hoping Jerry and John have met and jammed in the afterlife.

Update: Author Blair Jackson wrote about the Garcia/Lennon meeting in his Garcia: An American Life biography. Jackson spoke with two members of Legion Of Mary who were at The Bottom Line the night the former Beatle attended the Garcia-led project’s 1975 show. Martin Fierro had fond memories of the night as he told Jackson, “he came backstage and Jerry introduced him to us and I couldn’t speak.” The saxophonist went on to say, “My voice left me. He was one of my biggest heroes and I couldn’t talk. I was like a drugstore Indian. Then he came back with us to the hotel in the limo. No guards, no Yoko, just him. And he partied with us for a while.”

Blair Jackson also shared the thoughts of bassist John Kahn, who has a vastly different take on what went down. “Lennon was sort of in disguise and he was with this really weird guy I didn’t know. I heard from Richard Loren, I think it as, that Lennon asked if there was a guitar there that was louder than Garcia’s. He wanted to sit in. Well, that got back to Jerry, and Jerry said, ‘No, fuck him.’ Later, Lennon came down to the dressing room and was there for a long time; a couple of hours. He was real drunk and was a little belligerent. He kept referring to Jerry as ‘J.C.,’ which I took to mean Jesus Christ, like making fun of Jerry. That night Lennon ended up with the Hell’s Angels and we had a particularly sleazy, motely group of Hell’s Angels with us.”