How John Lennon’s childhood thievery nearly killed him: “I was so scared”
In the wake of their unprecedented global domination, it is easy to forget just how young The Beatles were; when ‘Love Me Do’ rocketed up the charts, John Lennon was barely 22, and the wheels of motion had been set that would see him become a part of the biggest band the world had ever witnessed.
Lennon can’t have been too shocked at that fact, though. After all, he had formed the teenage skiffle outfit The Quarrymen at the age of only 15, and throughout their adolescent years each of the band members seemed to devote themselves wholly to the pursuit of musical greatness. Still, Lennon might never have gotten to establish that skiffle outfit at all, had he not been able to shake one of his other childhood interests: thievery.
Whether it’s nicking sweets from the corner shop or engaging in Bugsy Malone-esque organised crime, theft is not an alien concept to most children. Growing up in 1940s Liverpool, it would be much more surprising if Lennon had led a completely angelic existence, free from any ounce of petty theft. As it turns out, though, his childhood habit nearly spelt a premature end for the future Beatle.
On The Beatles’ first-ever television appearance back in 1963 on Ready, Steady, Go, then-host Dusty Springfield quizzed the band in between performances, and one of the major revelations to come from that interview – aside from the fact that Paul McCartney doesn’t pluck his eyebrows, and would like a racing greyhound – was that Lennon had been shot at during his childhood.
Lennon later expanded upon that anecdote in an interview published in 2000 as part of The Beatles Anthology book. “I was shot at once, for stealing apples,” he revealed, introducing a slightly Dickensian tale.
“I used to go thieving with this kid. We used to ride on the bumpers of tram cars in Penny Lane and ride miles without paying.”
Seemingly, though, Lennon didn’t look back upon these memories with much fondness. “I’d be shitting myself all the time,” he recalled. “I was so scared. I nearly fell off while riding on the bumpers.”
In the end, of course, those tales of childhood antics became much more harrowing in December 1980, when John Lennon was fatally shot outside his apartment building in New York.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to think that one of the most prolific and influential songwriters in musical history could have been snuffed out before he had ever realised his musical talents, all for the price of a measly apple.
Thankfully, though, Lennon was able to escape his days of thieving more or less unscathed, either as a result of his fast running or the poor aim of a farmer.
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