29. An Interview That Caused Controversy, But Not the Expected One
John Lennon’s comment that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” caused no controversy when published in Britain. When republished in America a few months later, however, the result was moral outrage. Lennon’s statement was made in the context of a free-ranging interview with him and Paul McCartney. In it, McCartney criticized America’s widespread racism and mistreatment of black people: “It’s a lousy country where anybody black is a dirty n-i-g-g-e-r!“, he fumed. When the interview was republished in the American teen magazine Datebook on July 29th, 1966, McCartney’s comment led, and only his face appeared on the cover.
Datebook’s editors assumed that it was what McCartney said that would create the most controversy. As things transpired, his words about America’s race relations were widely ignored. Moralists made a beeline instead for Lennon’s comment about the band being more popular than Jesus. Outrage swept through Christian communities across the country, especially in the Bible Belt. The furor erupted amid the band’s 1966 US Tour and overshadowed much of it. As seen below, the heated reaction led to a dose of comic karma – not against the Beatles, but against their outraged critics.
