Bigger than Jesus? What actually happened with The Beatles' most controversial moment

15 July 2024, 11:37

The full, true story behind the most controversial moment in The Beatles history.

The Beatles rarely put a foot wrong in their relatively short, stunning decade together.

They shrugged off the departure of Pete Best, quickly switched up their shocking "butcher cover", and kept most of their feuding under wraps until it all eventually fell apart.

• 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles: The making of Paul McCartney's soaring epic
• The Beatles biopics: Cast, director, release date and songs for the FOUR upcoming movies
• Listen to the Gold 60s Live Playlist on Global Player

But there was one explosive moment that truly changed absolutely everything for the Fab Four.

“What’d you do? Screw up like The Beatles and say you were bigger than Jesus?" Bart Simpson asked Homer about his dad's barbershop quartet The B-Sharps, proving how the controversy has become so embedded in our culture.

The incident has remained shorthand for The Beatles messing up and maybe the beginning of the end of Beatlemania, in the US at least. But what's the truth about what really happened? Read on to find out.

Did The Beatles really say they were "bigger than Jesus"?

The first myth around The Beatles' Jesus controversy is that the quote attributed to the band was totally mangled.

Here's the exact phrasing of what John Lennon said, and the context.

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

When and where did John Lennon say that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus"?

John Lennon's comments first appeared in an article in the Evening Standard on March 4, 1966.

It was part of a series of four interviews with each of the band in a series called How Does a Beatle Live? All were written by Maureen Cleave, who had been covering the band for some time there.

Cleave had interviewed John at his Kenwood home in Weybridge, Surrey, and in the article had noted that Lennon had been reading about religion.

What happened when John Lennon's comments were first published in the UK?

Absolutely nothing, really!

Lennon's comment about the relative decline of Christianity was far from controversial by 1966, with the Church's grip on England certainly not what it was, halfway through the Swinging 60s.

It's worth mentioning that in Cleave's interview with George Harrison, the guitarist said to little notice: "Why can't we bring all this out in the open? Why is there all this stuff about blasphemy? If Christianity's as good as they say it is, it should stand up to a bit of discussion."

There was apparently one miffed letter to the editor, a droll cartoon by future Pink Floyd and Yes, Minister cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, and that was pretty much that. For a while.

Where did John Lennon's controversial comments get printed in the US?

The Beatles in America (1966) – "More popular than Jesus"

You might think that as soon as the comments in question crossed the Atlantic and reached the so-called Bible Belt, things got messy, but it wasn't really like that.

The same month that the interview had been published in the Standard, US magazine Newsweek referenced Lennon's remark.

A couple of months later the full interview appeared in Detroit magazine. Again, few seemed to notice or care.

It was only when the Lennon and McCartney interviews were republished in the teen magazine Datebook, having been offered by the Beatles' own press officer Tony Barrow, that things really kicked off.

Editor Art Unger actually read the interviews, and pulled out a couple of controversial quotes for the cover of the 'Shout-Out' issue.

Right there on the cover was John Lennon's quote: "I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity!"

The picture on the front wasn't of John, but of Paul, and his quote on the front was arguably more jaw-dropping, critiquing the racism Stateside by saying of how black people were treated: "It's a lousy country where anyone black is a dirty n***er!" (and that last word wasn't starred out, either.)

Who was it who first kicked off about John Lennon's comments?

Like any good editor looking for attention, Unger sent copies of the interviews far and wide... including to radio stations in the US South.

The first signs of what was to come were when DJs Tommy Charles and Doug Layton at WAQY got ahold of the quotes.

"That does it for me," Charles said. "I am not going to play the Beatles any more."

Listeners were asked for their views, and most were anti-Beatles.

"We just felt it was so absurd and sacrilegious that something ought to be done to show them that they can't get away with this sort of thing," Charles was later quoted as saying.

The news spread, especially after a New York Times story on August 5, and things were only going to get bigger.

What happened next?

The controversy spread, and fast. Over 30 other stations decided to stop playing The Beatles records.

Not content with just ripping up their own vinyl, WAQY hired an actual woodchipper and asked listeners to send in their Beatles memorabilia.

KCBN in Reno, Nevada took things even further, announcing a public burning of Beatles music and merch on August 6. Other stations did the same.

Similar protests and bands took place in Christian countries like Mexico, South Africa and Spain.

Even the Vatican got in on the act, pronouncing: "Some subjects must not be dealt with profanely, not even in the world of beatniks."

How did The Beatles respond to the "more popular than Jesus" controversy?

At first, it seemed as though the Beatles would hope the whole thing would blow over.

Manager Brian Epstein was quoted as quipping that if people were burning the Beatles that well, they needed to buy them in the first place.

But clearly, this wasn't a joking matter, and Epstein was even said to be planning to cancel the Beatles' planned US tour dates, so worried he was for the band's safety.

The Beatles - "Jesus Apology" Press Conference - Restored Full - Aug 12, 1966

Instead, Epstein took control, flying to New York ahead of the shows to hold a press conference on August 5.

"The quote which John Lennon made more than three months ago to a London columnist has been quoted and misrepresented entirely out of context," said Epstein.

"What he said, and meant, was that he was astonished that in the last 50 years the Church of England, and therefore Christ, had suffered a decline in interest. He did not mean to boast about The Beatles' fame."

It wasn't enough.

Epstein had the idea of Lennon recording a formal apology produced by George Martin (what a record that would have been), but it never happened.

Instead, when The Beatles arrived in America they gave a press conference where Lennon contextualised his comments and apologised.

"I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it," he said.

"I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying we are greater or better. I think it's a bit silly. If they don't like us, why don't they just not buy the records?"

Lennon added: "If you want me to apologise. If that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."

He later admitted to being "terrified" and "really scared" by the whole thing.

What happened after John Lennon's public apology?

Some critics did accept Lennon's apology as genuine.

Tommy Charles, who maybe did as much as anyone to initially spark the outcry, cancelled WAQY's planned Beatles Bonfire, which had been set for August 19.

An editorial in the New York Times tried to draw a line under the matter, and even The Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano forgave (after all, “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you," said Jesus).

Not everyone was so understanding.

Texas radio station KLUE went ahead with its own Beatles Bonfire. The Ku Klux Klan picketed shows in Washington DC and Memphis Tennessee, while in South Carolina they protested the band by sticking a Beatles album on a cross and burning it. There were protests elsewhere on the tour.

Despite the controversy, the Beatles were unbowed, and Lennon and the rest of the band bravely spoke out against the Vietnam War.

Was the "bigger than Jesus" controversy the reason The Beatles stopped touring?

Watch the official trailer for The Beatles: Get Back on Disney Plus

The Beatles' last proper live show took place on August 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. (For all its amazingness, the impromptu Rooftop Concert on the top of Apple HQ two and half years later doesn't really count).

That half-hour set in San Francisco was the end of the Beatles tour that took place in the wake of the "more popular than Jesus" comments and backlash, so it's fair to consider if the decision to stop touring was a direct response to febrile, sometimes even dangerous atmosphere of that tour.

George said he would quit the band if they didn't stop touring, and Paul, John and Ringo certainly didn't need their arms twisting after what had just happened.

So, it was certainly part of the reason, though it's important to mention some of the other factors.

Even before they made it to the US on that tour, preceding concerts in West Germany, Japan and the Philippines presented their own issues.

Heavy-handed security kept the fans away from the band, while bookings at the Budokan offended some Japanese traditionalists.

Worst of all, was the OTT reaction to a perceived slight against the First Lady of the Philippines when the band turned down a private performance at the Palace.

It led to Manila International Airport being locked down, Brian Epstein apparently being given an $80,000 "tax bill" by authorities, and the band having to dodge punches and kicks as they finally made their way to the plane to get out of the country.

The Beatles return from the Philippines

Beyond the controversies, the technology of the age was certainly struggling to keep up with The Beatles as live performers.

That was true both in reproducing the intricate work they were doing in the studio on songs like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and even in terms of basic volume, where rickety PAs could barely be heard above the screaming of thousands of fans, and the band certainly couldn't hear themselves playing.

Brian Epstein tragically died a year after The Beatles' last show, and it's also not impossible to imagine an alternative timeline where a living Brian cajoled the band back on the road later in the 1960s.

But it's certainly fair to say that the oversized response to Lennon's comments played a part in The Beatles hanging up their touring boots.

God (Remastered 2010)

Lennon never toured after The Beatles either, only playing a handful of shows. He incorporated his critique of religion into his work, most notably on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band standout 'God' and the title track of Imagine.

And while the murder of Lennon is too horrific and inexplicable to offer just one "reason" for Mark David Chapman's motives, it has to be noted that he at times has cited the "more popular than Jesus" controversy and Lennon's lyrics to 'God' and 'Imagine'.

But The Beatles had always spoken from the heart. Spoken their truths. And in art and in life that's always important.

"Was it a mistake?" asked Paul years later about the original comments. "I don't know. In the short term, yes. Maybe not in the long term.