John Lennon ‘made quite a scene’ using a violent scare tactic at a party years before his death
Producer Jack Douglas has revealed that former Beatle John Lennon used an unusual method to quiet down a rambunctious party he attended in New York City in the 1970s
02:01 ET, 07 Dec 2025
John Lennon ‘made quite a scene’ using a violent scare tactic at a party years before his death(Image: Getty Images)
John Lennon “made quite a scene” using a violent scare tactic at a party years before his death.
The former Beatle’s producer and friend, Jack Douglas, recently appeared on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, where he recalled the time he and Lennon attended a party in New York City in the early 1970s. The pair arrived with Abbie Hoffman and other counterculture activists.
However, the party quickly grew rambunctious, forcing Lennon to use an unusual method for quieting things down. The now 80-year-old said the rock icon grew annoyed by the constant yelling of political slogans and pulled out a knife from the kitchen, threatening violence. The scare tactic worked. Sadly, years later, Lennon would die violently, being shot in front of his home on December 8, 1980.
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Douglas explained on Corgan’s podcast, “They were talking in his apartment. ‘Off the pig.’ They were talking about violence, and he was getting drunker and drunker. He made quite a scene at that party. He grabbed a knife in the kitchen and he went at this woman who had been yelling to ‘off the pigs,’ and he was like, ‘You want violence? I’ll show you violence!'”
The music producer said Lennon’s outburst worked, as he “scared the s— out of” the woman. He and Douglas quickly left the party after that. “Off the pig” was a political slogan the Black Panthers and other political parties often used, with pig being police.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono befriended activists in the 1970s
Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, befriended Hoffman and Jerry Rubin upon moving to New York City. The pair even asked Lennon and Ono to speak at a rally for John Sinclair, a writer arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing marijuana, per People.
However, Douglas claimed that Hoffman, Rubin, and their group of followers were “using” Lennon to further their political activism. He recalled Lennon describing the group as “nutcases” when he first invited Douglas to the party where he flashed the knife. Lennon’s involvement with the activist group landed him in serious trouble. The FBI put him under surveillance in 1971, and he was also nearly deported.
John Lennon wielded a knife at a party to get people to stop chanting political slogans (Image: Vinnie Zuffante, Getty Images)
Douglas worked with Lennon in the studio on the day he died. They added the finishing touches to one of Ono’s songs called Walking On Thin Ice. In a 2023 interview with People, Douglas said the star was “very positive” and looking forward to his early studio call time the next day.
“During that whole period, he was just so excited to be back and so happy to be with his family and how much he loved [his son] Sean and how things with Yoko were pretty good,” he said. “It was a very different John, and that whole period was just lovely.”
The producer added that the musician had “a lot of plans,” and was excited about his future. “I once asked [John], ‘What’s your secret of writing a really great song?’ And he said, ‘Tell the truth, and make it rhyme.’ The reason why so many people felt close to him was because they always felt they knew him, because he sang about what he was going through,” he said. “There was just this great truth about his music.”
John Lennon died on December 8, 1980, at the age of 40(Image: Getty Images)
Earlier that day, after a photoshoot, Lennon gave his last interview with RKO Radio’s Dave Sholin. Lennon spoke about his daily life, but soon began reflecting on his recent 40th birthday. “I hope I die before Yoko,” he said, “because if Yoko died I wouldn’t know how to survive. I couldn’t carry on.”
That night, around 10:45 p.m., when Lennon and Ono returned home, gunman Mark David Chapman emerged and fired his .38-caliber pistol four times. He shot Lennon twice in the back and twice in the shoulder. He died instantly, but his legacy lives on through The Beatles and his incredible solo work.
