Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis. John Lennon was a musical genius
Speaker 1: and one of the most beloved cultural figures of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century. His songs inspired dreamers to imagine, his search
Speaker 1: for the truth gave power to the people. But some
Speaker 1: thought he dreamed too much. Others thought he was too powerful,
Speaker 1: so he was followed, he was threatened, he was declared
Speaker 1: a danger to the United States, and in nine eighty
Speaker 1: he was assassinated. This is his story told by his
Speaker 1: so called friends. Business special agent Jim Steele with the
Speaker 1: Federal Bureau of Investignation work in case number double oh
Speaker 1: nine DASH zero eight DASH zero four nine one. Case
Speaker 1: subject is Lennon, John Winston oh No. This information pertains
Speaker 1: to a period in ex September. Interview subject as Moon
Speaker 1: Keith John Interview number zero DA zero two zero six
Speaker 1: one Nation nine one Spirit Confessional Recall number two December.
Speaker 1: The actor Oliver Reed once said that I showed him
Speaker 1: the way to insanity. I had the roadmap. In fact,
Speaker 1: I didn't need a map. It was all in my head.
Speaker 1: Some days it took us longer to get better than others,
Speaker 1: but that was all part of the trip. When I
Speaker 1: found myself in Los Angeles at the same time as
Speaker 1: John Lennon, I found another crazy old soul in search
Speaker 1: of insanity, self destruction, rebirth by root of oblivion. People
Speaker 1: think they know I'm John Lennon, who he is, who
Speaker 1: he was, who we can to used to be for
Speaker 1: millions of people, But they don't know at all. No
Speaker 1: one really knows, and not to to my own horn.
Speaker 1: But I think I got to know him better than
Speaker 1: most because I was there at the time when he
Speaker 1: just tore all down and tried to rebuild from scratch.
Speaker 1: He was no longer a people. He was John Lennon.
Speaker 1: And what the blood yell did that even mean? It
Speaker 1: meant that you had to be fearless and reckless, and
Speaker 1: you had to come to terms with the fact that
Speaker 1: the strange things you did would leave a lot of
Speaker 1: blood on the tracks. H Chapter four, John Lennon and
Speaker 1: Keith Moore. Life has always been a bit of a
Speaker 1: blur for me. I do remember that certain things happen.
Speaker 1: The crazier the better, naturally, but the order that things happen,
Speaker 1: the chronology, good luck, mate. I can't remember did I
Speaker 1: drive that brand new Lincoln Continental into the pool at
Speaker 1: the holiday in in Flint, Michigan, before I chopped up
Speaker 1: the hotel room in Saskatoon with a hatchet. I do
Speaker 1: remember this one hotel room in Copenhagen. I believe it
Speaker 1: was the one that came with a water bed. Mr Moon.
Speaker 1: They said, all we have available is this sweet with
Speaker 1: a water bed? Will that be all right? Bloody ill?
Speaker 1: I had a few blokes try to carry the water
Speaker 1: bed with me to the elevator so that we could
Speaker 1: send up a few floors and then explode it. But
Speaker 1: the damn thing exploded before we even got it out
Speaker 1: of the room. We must have accidentally punctured it. That
Speaker 1: was a two ton water bed, right, So two tons
Speaker 1: of water were soaken into the floor in this hotel room,
Speaker 1: and within minutes the floor blew out, which is the
Speaker 1: ceiling of the room directly below us. And then the
Speaker 1: floor of that room blew out from all the water.
Speaker 1: Three rooms destroyed with one water bed and not a
Speaker 1: two mile long? Now did that happen before or after
Speaker 1: I took the monkey trunquilizer and without a commission for
Speaker 1: twenty four hours, I don't know ship was it a
Speaker 1: monkey tranquilizer. Maybe it was a run no tranquilizer. All
Speaker 1: I know is that I had to be pushed around
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair for days. I couldn't film the bloody legs.
Speaker 1: I did all these things out of boredom. By the way,
Speaker 1: the destruction on stage with the Who was because we
Speaker 1: were piste off, piste off that the audiences didn't have
Speaker 1: a more visceral reaction to what we were doing. The
Speaker 1: destruction off the stage was just because I needed something
Speaker 1: to fill the time, and like I said, I've never
Speaker 1: been good with time. However, I do remember that I
Speaker 1: was living in Los Angeles at the same time that
Speaker 1: John Lennon was out there. How could I forget that
Speaker 1: John rented this beach house in Santa Monica used to
Speaker 1: belong to Peter Lawford. Lawford was the extra guy in
Speaker 1: Sinatra's rat pack. None of us knew what the earie
Speaker 1: did beside drink Dean Martin's scotch. But Lawford was also
Speaker 1: married to Patricia Kennedy, and so he had Jack Kennedy
Speaker 1: and Bobby Kennedy over to this beach house for parties.
Speaker 1: Rumor as it, JFK slept with Marilyn Monroe in that
Speaker 1: very house right there on the Pacific Coast Highway. So
Speaker 1: this was the drill. We'd rehearse songs at the Beach
Speaker 1: House each afternoon, songs for Pussycats, the album John was
Speaker 1: making with Harry Nielsen, Well, Rise Up, Get Yourself, Harry
Speaker 1: Nielsen's new album Pussy Against, produced by John Lennon, Nielsen's latest.
Speaker 1: John had the record plant in l A booked every afternoon,
Speaker 1: five day, so we'd have limos take us into town
Speaker 1: for the five dirty sessions each day, record till midnight
Speaker 1: or so. Then the limos would drive us around to
Speaker 1: the Strip or wherever you know, the whiskey, the Rainbow
Speaker 1: on the rocksity. We haunted l A nightlife so prolifically
Speaker 1: we even got a nickname, the Hollywood Vampires, not that
Speaker 1: we do that sort of thing every night. Those places
Speaker 1: are closed on Sundays. Then the limos would take us
Speaker 1: back to the Beach House in Santa Monica, but not
Speaker 1: before we stopped at Turner's Liquor Store on Sunset and Narrabee,
Speaker 1: a twenty four hours store where my credit was very good.
Speaker 1: Unlike the clubs, that place was open every day, Thank
Speaker 1: the Lord. It took us longer to get them. We'd
Speaker 1: wake up at some point the next day and start
Speaker 1: all over again. I would wake up with a different
Speaker 1: girl in bed with me every morning. I wasn't Peter Lawford,
Speaker 1: and the girls weren't Marilyn Monroe, but they do. This
Speaker 1: is when I was going by Baron von Moon. Our
Speaker 1: uniform of choice, a German general's leather jacket, an aviator
Speaker 1: scarf and field glasses. Never did wear much below, so
Speaker 1: when I turned around, the bare grass would poke out
Speaker 1: from the tails of the leather jacket. I could go
Speaker 1: naked at the beach House whenever I wanted to, Unlike
Speaker 1: the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, which is where I stayed when
Speaker 1: I first got into town in early the management of
Speaker 1: that place shut the electricity off in my room because
Speaker 1: they were getting too many noise complaints. Well do you
Speaker 1: know what I did. I moved all my furniture out
Speaker 1: into the hallway, my armchair and stereo, plugged the stereo
Speaker 1: into an outlet in the hallway, played my music at
Speaker 1: full blast, and sat in my armchair naked, fearless. And
Speaker 1: that got their attention pretty bloody quick. Okay, so I
Speaker 1: drew attention just about everywhere I went. I blew up
Speaker 1: drum kits on stage with the who. I blew up
Speaker 1: toilets and hotel rooms. I knew more than a person
Speaker 1: should know about demolitions. And just imagine, there we are
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, Me, John Harry Ring, Go Van Dyke, Parks,
Speaker 1: Alice Cooper, Mickey Dollins, whoever happened to jump in and
Speaker 1: join our wandering caravan of merry men. We demolished our minds,
Speaker 1: We demolished our bodies by route of oblivion. And I said, John,
Speaker 1: fuck all that beatles rubbish. Let's focus on demolishing you right.
Speaker 1: Let's tear down whoever it was that you used to
Speaker 1: be and become someone completely different. I was Baron von Moon,
Speaker 1: for example. So we started calling John dr Winston, oh boogie.
Speaker 1: What I didn't tell him was that becoming someone else
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be easy. But bloody ill it must
Speaker 1: have known that he was John Levin and all he
Speaker 1: had to do was take a good look at me
Speaker 1: and know that if we were heading in the same
Speaker 1: direction together, there were going to be some things that
Speaker 1: happened along the way that either you wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to remember, or you wouldn't want to. At one point,
Speaker 1: I imagine what it would be like if I was
Speaker 1: in the Beatles. I think all of us have at
Speaker 1: one time or another. It was and the who we're
Speaker 1: just getting started our debut long Player. My generation wouldn't
Speaker 1: be out until the end of the year. I spotted
Speaker 1: the Beatles sitting together in this pub called the Scotch
Speaker 1: of St James in London, Glady Hill, the Beatles. Everyone
Speaker 1: loved the Beatles. I decided to be a bit cheeky,
Speaker 1: take the piss and all that. I walked over to
Speaker 1: their table and said, I like, lads, do you mind
Speaker 1: if I join you? The lads were all smiles by
Speaker 1: all means. Keith pull up a chair and I said, no,
Speaker 1: do you mind if I joined you? You had to
Speaker 1: be fearless, ruffled ringos feathers a bit, but he knew
Speaker 1: I was joking, well partly joking. At least. All of
Speaker 1: us groups saw quite a bit of each other throughout
Speaker 1: the sixties, but it wasn't until in Los Angeles that
Speaker 1: I really got to know John. John didn't necessarily need
Speaker 1: someone to guide them down this path to get lost.
Speaker 1: He was quite adept at making a fool of himself
Speaker 1: on his own, but I, being the resident gom Well,
Speaker 1: I took upon myself to show him how to truly
Speaker 1: go berserk. Show them the way. Now, should I have
Speaker 1: sacrificed the custom built halts A recording console A and
Speaker 1: M Studios to illustrate my point? Perhaps not. We were
Speaker 1: at A and M Studios to record some songs for
Speaker 1: the oldies, but Moldy's record John was making with Phil
Speaker 1: spect I've been invited to play drums. At the end
Speaker 1: of the session, Specter and the audio engineers all went
Speaker 1: home and it was just me, Arie and John hanging around.
Speaker 1: I said, John, best to live in the moment, carpe
Speaker 1: diem and all that rubbish. He's not busy being born,
Speaker 1: He's busy dying, et cetera. And then I unzipped my
Speaker 1: pants and piste on the console sanity ship. I don't
Speaker 1: know if the damn thing ever worked again. Aary was
Speaker 1: laughing so hard he probably pissed his own pants. But
Speaker 1: John got angry at me. Moon, What the funk have
Speaker 1: you done? You know that sort of thing? I knew
Speaker 1: what I had done. I piste all over a holtz
Speaker 1: are worth tens of thousands easy. He just wasn't quite
Speaker 1: ready yet. He wasn't ready to go the distance to
Speaker 1: truly let go of your last care in the world
Speaker 1: and be so spontaneous that perhaps it scares you a
Speaker 1: little bit. John told the record company and the studio
Speaker 1: that someone's build larger on it. But let me tell
Speaker 1: you it wasn't lager. I mean, it may have once
Speaker 1: been larger, but it was definitely piss John left a
Speaker 1: handwritten note for Specter that blamed me and Ry for
Speaker 1: what happened. He was all worried because the studio was
Speaker 1: threatening to a victim over the damage. John panicked and
Speaker 1: told Specter to tell the studio owner to build Capitol
Speaker 1: Records for the damage, and then he wrote, I can't
Speaker 1: be expected to mind adult rock stars, nor can May. Besides,
Speaker 1: she works for me, not a and m That was Rich, Hello,
Speaker 1: part this is the cattle calling. And who was minding John? Well,
Speaker 1: that would be May May Pang, whom he referenced in
Speaker 1: that letter. He could barely recognize that May was on
Speaker 1: rock star babysitting duty with him. The doult May had
Speaker 1: accompanied John to Los Angeles. Of course, from what I understand,
Speaker 1: on the orders of Yoko May was their assistant, and
Speaker 1: Yoko was at a bit of an emotional impulse with
Speaker 1: John and thought that time and distance would heal all wounds.
Speaker 1: This was right after he embarrassed the Hell Hour when
Speaker 1: he took Jerry Reuben's girlfriend into the bedroom at Jerry's
Speaker 1: flat and had his way with her, with Yoko there
Speaker 1: in the other room. As I understand it, m and
Speaker 1: so John went west to get all the impulses and
Speaker 1: urges and whatever else out of his system, just really
Speaker 1: live it up and party yard and May was there
Speaker 1: not just as his assistant and babysitter, but also as
Speaker 1: a fling approved by his own wife. Not that John
Speaker 1: would even stay faithful to his wife appointed lover. We
Speaker 1: had to break him in a bit, get him to
Speaker 1: our level of insanity. So the console pissing stand out
Speaker 1: of the way. John started to cut loose a little more.
Speaker 1: That's when Dr Winston no Boogie started to peek out
Speaker 1: from behind John's eyes. Dr Oh Boogie drank Brandy Alexander's
Speaker 1: with Harry Nielsen and the like, and well, I'd drink
Speaker 1: anything once twice to make sure I liked it or not,
Speaker 1: and then a third time to see if I needed
Speaker 1: a fourth or fifth to really settle upon an opinion.
Speaker 1: He must have been loaded on Brandy Alexander's when Oh
Speaker 1: Boogie bugged right out of John's head one night on
Speaker 1: the Rocks, which was a small lounge on top of
Speaker 1: the Rocks sanity, people knew he was in there, John Lennon,
Speaker 1: the ex Beatle. For Christ's sakes, people think they know
Speaker 1: me John Lennon first, because word had gotten around town
Speaker 1: that John was spending a lot of time in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles recording and cavorting with the usual suspects. And as
Speaker 1: words spread that he was in town, fans would glean
Speaker 1: his whereabouts, and they tell other fans it wasn't a
Speaker 1: hard day's night. He was running for his life to
Speaker 1: escape a frenzied mob. But he was the most famous
Speaker 1: musician out of our entire group, so it made us
Speaker 1: all a bit high profile. So this crowd gathers in
Speaker 1: the parking lot outside the club, and all these drunk
Speaker 1: fans are screaming up towards on the Rocks. Give us
Speaker 1: John lenn and we want John, you know, just slurred
Speaker 1: demands from these frothing mouths, yapping beneath bloodshot eyes, and
Speaker 1: John heard him all, well, Dr Winston, no boogie, and
Speaker 1: that's when he took over, and John kicked out the
Speaker 1: window of the club that looked out over the park
Speaker 1: and knot the things sailed straight towards the ground. Was
Speaker 1: very dramatic and to the point crash. There it was.
Speaker 1: I showed him the weight. And then there's John or
Speaker 1: doctor old Boogie, I presume, and he's screaming back at
Speaker 1: the fans here I am you fucker's. John was so
Speaker 1: gone on Brandy Alexander's and who knows what else that
Speaker 1: he thought of jumping, jumping straight out of the second
Speaker 1: story window and into the arms of these rabid fans.
Speaker 1: They weren't there to see a beatle. They were there
Speaker 1: to see John Lennon completely lose his ship and jump
Speaker 1: rebirth by root of oblivion. A few people grabbed John
Speaker 1: by the arms just as he started to make a
Speaker 1: run for it, crazy old soul. They got him downstairs
Speaker 1: outside into the parking lot where the fans were still
Speaker 1: crackling and grabbing for him. John got overwhelmed and started
Speaker 1: cushion people around and throwing punches, and then the fans
Speaker 1: got pierced it in and started punching back. He was
Speaker 1: finally wrangled into the back of a big black car
Speaker 1: that was headed back to the beach house in Santa Monica.
Speaker 1: I'd like to think that it was my piercing stunt
Speaker 1: on the A and M console that gave them the
Speaker 1: inspiration to kick out the back window of the car
Speaker 1: as it sped away down Sunset Boulevard. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back after this, world, World, World, Now I've gone and
Speaker 1: done that again. I like to think everything I just
Speaker 1: told you happened in that very order, because well, because
Speaker 1: the stories just work well together that way. But funk,
Speaker 1: if I know, mate, I could have just told it
Speaker 1: all in reverse. All I know is that the more
Speaker 1: John hung around the rest of us crazy bastards, the
Speaker 1: crazier he became. And listen, if he was sent out
Speaker 1: west to, as it were, get it out of his system, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure at what point it was supposed to
Speaker 1: be out of his system. It just seemed to become
Speaker 1: more and more part of his system. That was all
Speaker 1: part of the trip. People who saw him do these
Speaker 1: things in public, whether he was drunk on the floor
Speaker 1: of a fancy restaurant with Phil Specter or disturbing the
Speaker 1: p peace at Smother's brother show. It wasn't a beatle
Speaker 1: they were seeing. It was a spoiled rock star making
Speaker 1: a complete ars out of himself, and in a way
Speaker 1: they had never seen before. Is that really, John Lennon?
Speaker 1: These are the sorts of things, they'd say. It was
Speaker 1: one thing to see someone like me running around and
Speaker 1: drag or in full Nazi regalia, which is true. You know,
Speaker 1: I wore that when I tried very unsuccessfully to make
Speaker 1: friends with my neighbor Steve McQueen. But to see John
Speaker 1: acting outrageously was something completely different. What can I say
Speaker 1: it was? There were no more innocent pool side Illis
Speaker 1: d trips with people like Peter Fonder. It was no
Speaker 1: longer good Day Sunshine. It was Lady l here comes
Speaker 1: the bleeding Son again. Just look at the music that
Speaker 1: came out of this time. There was the Oldies, but
Speaker 1: Maldi's album, which became rock and roll. There was aries
Speaker 1: pussy Cats. There was my own solo album, Two Sides
Speaker 1: of the Moon, which John gave me an unreleased song
Speaker 1: to put on. But none of those were classic records. Honestly,
Speaker 1: we were all lucky to make it out alive. On
Speaker 1: the other side, because John's lost weekend nearly killed him.
Speaker 1: It was the night of the co Tex episode. You've
Speaker 1: heard that story a million times, I suppose, so I
Speaker 1: don't really need to go into detail on it. Suffice
Speaker 1: to say John went to the Troumador with a co
Speaker 1: Tex sanitary napkin on his head and proceeded to make
Speaker 1: an incredible ass of himself while Ann Peebles tried to
Speaker 1: get through I can't stand the rain on stage. John
Speaker 1: got himself kicked out the club that night. Jesse Ed
Speaker 1: Davis was with him. Jesse Ed was one of the
Speaker 1: unsung guitar greats. Used to be Taj Mahal's right hand man,
Speaker 1: and then he became a highly sought after player for
Speaker 1: all these people in l A Baby King, Jackson Brown,
Speaker 1: Brian Ferry, George Harrison, the list goes on. Now. Jesse
Speaker 1: Ed worked real bloody yard to keep up with me. John,
Speaker 1: Harry Ringo and the Lot, John may Pang, jesse Ed
Speaker 1: and jesse Ed's girlfriend Patty all went back to Harold
Speaker 1: Sider's place. That's one of John's lawyers. I don't even
Speaker 1: know why they ended up there, but just stick with
Speaker 1: me as soon as they got there, jesse Ed said,
Speaker 1: they decided to Keith Moon the apartment. Can you believe it?
Speaker 1: Not a tile on? I was rubbing off on John,
Speaker 1: I was John smashed a hanging knight with the skillet
Speaker 1: Ian jesse Ed slashed a mattress and pulled the stuff
Speaker 1: and out reckless h And every time they break something,
Speaker 1: they pause for a drink or a snort of coke
Speaker 1: or something, and then just get right back at it.
Speaker 1: Once there was nothing left to break, John went after
Speaker 1: jesse Ed. John jumped him, put him into a wrestling hold,
Speaker 1: and dragged him down on the floor, which was littered
Speaker 1: with broken glass and mattress stuffing and cigarette ash. They
Speaker 1: rolled around on the floor, wrestling, laughing, just losing their
Speaker 1: bleeding minds, and in the chaos of the moment, a
Speaker 1: moment fueled by booze and drugs and the thrill of
Speaker 1: bad behavior, John clocked jesse Ed on the head with
Speaker 1: a marble ash tray. Just bam. Jesse Ed was out mate.
Speaker 1: That was all part of the trek. Patty screamed, bloody murder,
Speaker 1: just shrieking. You know what have you done? He's dead?
Speaker 1: Just a blood curdling sound. It was such a racket
Speaker 1: that the neighbors panicked and called the police. So just
Speaker 1: around the time that John revived Jesse d with a
Speaker 1: big splash of orange juice to the face of all things,
Speaker 1: the l A p. D burst inside the place, shotguns drawn.
Speaker 1: Based on the state of the apartment and the frantic
Speaker 1: call from the disturbed neighbor, the cops thought they had
Speaker 1: another Charles Manson on the rands, so they let the
Speaker 1: shotguns lead them into the place, fingers on the triggers
Speaker 1: clear in each room. As they made their way inside,
Speaker 1: John panicked and ran upstairs, which is a bad look
Speaker 1: when the demolished apartment you're in is being raided by
Speaker 1: armed police officers. People think they know. John Lennon May
Speaker 1: took Chase to coax and back downstairs, but a cop
Speaker 1: followed directly behind her, and as May is trying to
Speaker 1: reason with the man who was out of his mind
Speaker 1: know a moon level of insanity as I should know,
Speaker 1: the cops slowly walked into the room John was hiding
Speaker 1: it his shotgun aimed directly at John's chest. John stopped
Speaker 1: rambling onto me, locked eyes with the cop, and slowly
Speaker 1: raised his hands in the air, dead silence. The cop
Speaker 1: slowly lowered his shotgun as he realized that this wasn't
Speaker 1: the second coming of Charles Manson, this was John Lennon. Mate,
Speaker 1: Holy shit, the cops said, John Lennon, Tell me, John,
Speaker 1: do you think the Beatles will ever get back together?
Speaker 1: September six, Keith Moon paced around his London flat at
Speaker 1: nine Curzon Square in London, the one owned by his
Speaker 1: friend Harry Nelson. He debated, calling his dealer. Did Keith
Speaker 1: want the cocaine because he was about to head out
Speaker 1: to a party and therefore needed some social lubricant? Did
Speaker 1: he want the cocaine because he was born? Did he
Speaker 1: even want the cocaine at all? It was the eve
Speaker 1: of Buddy Holly's forty two birthday, God Rest his soul,
Speaker 1: and Keith's friend Paul McCartney he was throwing a party
Speaker 1: at Peppermint Park, a cocktail bar over in the West End.
Speaker 1: Paul had recently purchased Buddy Holly song publishing catalog, which
Speaker 1: probably burned John Lennon's ass a bit. Since John was
Speaker 1: the Beatle who was heavily influenced by Buddy singing style,
Speaker 1: Little Richard was more Paul's back. The guest lists of
Speaker 1: Music Royalty at Paul's Buddy Holly party would pregame at
Speaker 1: Peppermint Park and then head over to catch the screening
Speaker 1: of the brand new biopic The Buddy Holly Story at
Speaker 1: a theater in Muster Square later in the evening. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of social butterflying on the docket. So yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Keith did want the cocaine, especially since he wouldn't be
Speaker 1: drinking that night. He had been trying to go easy
Speaker 1: on the stuff and so far, so good. Keith had
Speaker 1: been taking him in over and a sedative prescribed by
Speaker 1: his doctor to help reduce Keith's constant cravings for booze.
Speaker 1: When the pills really took hold, they slowed Keith down
Speaker 1: to a snail's pace and made his memory even worse
Speaker 1: than it already was. But the hemenovern was also helping
Speaker 1: Keith get healthy. It notably reduced his desire for alcohol
Speaker 1: and thus reduced his legendary alcohol consumption to a fraction
Speaker 1: of what it once was. But the Hemenovern didn't quell
Speaker 1: Keith Moon's addictive personality. Quite the opposite. He regularly popped
Speaker 1: more Himitagran pills than he should have, and he figured, well,
Speaker 1: if he was drinking less that it stood to reason
Speaker 1: that he should be allowed to continue drugging at a
Speaker 1: reasonable pace to balance things out. So on this night,
Speaker 1: he called up his dealer, scored an envelope of coke,
Speaker 1: took his beautiful girlfriend and Thatt Walter Lax on his arm,
Speaker 1: and hit the town. Keith mingled with Paul McCartney at
Speaker 1: Peppermint Park. Perhaps Paul gave Keith props for the whose
Speaker 1: eighth and latest studio album, Who Are You, which was
Speaker 1: currently going strong on the UK charts, and perhaps Keith
Speaker 1: reminisced about the time he spent in the drunken orbit
Speaker 1: of Paul's ex songwriting partner John Lennon when John lived
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. John had since returned to New York
Speaker 1: City and to his wife Yoko Ono, and had dropped
Speaker 1: out of the public limelight altogether to raise his new son, Sean.
Speaker 1: Keith found that he wasn't particularly enjoying the public limelight
Speaker 1: himself on that evening, and so halfway through the Buddy
Speaker 1: Holly story, he in Annett bailed and went home. Annette
Speaker 1: didn't know that Keith was taking more himenevern than he
Speaker 1: should have been. She saw him routinely take what she
Speaker 1: called his usual glass of water and a bucket of
Speaker 1: pills when he finally went to sleep that night at
Speaker 1: four am, But he was awake a few hours later
Speaker 1: when he took more of the prescription medicine and fell
Speaker 1: asleep again. When Annette passed out and slept into mid afternoon,
Speaker 1: she had no idea that when she would wake up,
Speaker 1: Keith Moon would be dead. In September of nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: John Lennon was reverting back to his Lost Weekend ways
Speaker 1: while on holiday in Hawaii. It was there that he
Speaker 1: would have heard the news of Keith Moon's death, who
Speaker 1: overdosed on himenever and in his flat on September seventh,
Speaker 1: the day after the Buddy Holly party at Peppermint Park.
Speaker 1: He was thirty two. John may have been a bit
Speaker 1: too out of his own head at the time to
Speaker 1: truly process what had happened. In Hawaii. John ran into
Speaker 1: Jesse ed Davis, taj Mahal's former guitarist, who had sat
Speaker 1: in on so many of the Lost Weekend sessions back
Speaker 1: in l a not to mention in the extra curricular
Speaker 1: proto WrestleMania sessions. It took place at places like Harold
Speaker 1: Cider's apartment. John and jesse Ed fell back into their
Speaker 1: old ways, old ways that John had tried to purge
Speaker 1: from his system for eighteen months in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy four, but old habits die hard, John
Speaker 1: and jesse Ed put their heads together to see what
Speaker 1: kind of junk they could scare up and what kind
Speaker 1: of trouble they could get into on the island before
Speaker 1: John had to return to New York into parenthood. To
Speaker 1: the public, John Lennon had become another famous recluse, another
Speaker 1: Howard Hughes, another Greta Garbow, with a real Greta Garbow,
Speaker 1: by the way, just happened to live in an apartment
Speaker 1: across Manhattan from John in Yoka. But John was no recluse.
Speaker 1: John was no Hughes or Garbow. Because the wild stories
Speaker 1: about John Lennon in the nineteen seventies didn't just end
Speaker 1: when he left his fellow Hollywood vampires in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and returned to New York to resume life as a
Speaker 1: family man. The stories followed him back, and so did
Speaker 1: some of the bad influences. He grew close to, like
Speaker 1: Nelson Schmilsen, a fellow pussycat who just couldn't let John
Speaker 1: walk away from a path of self destruction, only to
Speaker 1: leave a fellow pussy cat hanging. The one and the
Speaker 1: same pussycat who coincidentally just happened to own the London
Speaker 1: flat that Keith Moon had died in. That particularly bad
Speaker 1: influence would be a staple in John's life on both coasts.
Speaker 1: It would even wreck his voice so bad that his
Speaker 1: vocal cords bled very literally, leaving nothing but Blood on
Speaker 1: the Tracks. All right, everybody, thanks for listening to Blood
Speaker 1: on the Tracks. If you like what you hear, be
Speaker 1: sure to find and follow Blood on the Tracks on
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, I Heart Radio, app, Amazon Music, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. On this season two of Blood
Speaker 1: on the Track Acts, we'll releasing ten episodes on the
Speaker 1: incredible life of John Lennon, with a new episode every Thursday.
Speaker 1: You can also binge all ten episodes of season one
Speaker 1: on the insane story of the notorious record producer Phil
Speaker 1: Spector right now. It's available wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: This episode of Blood on the Tracks was written by
Speaker 1: Zeth Lundie and hosted an executive produced by me Jake Brennan,
Speaker 1: also executive produced by Brady sad Story and copy editing
Speaker 1: by Pat Heally. This episode was mixed by Colin Fleming.
Speaker 1: Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode
Speaker 1: featured Jack Laugherty's Keith Moon. Blood on the Tracks is
Speaker 1: produced by Double Elvis and partnership with I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Sources for this episode are available at Double Elvis dot
Speaker 1: com on the Blood on the Tracks series page. If
Speaker 1: you want to chat about this show or hear more
Speaker 1: about the other shows we're making a Double Elvis tap
Speaker 1: in on Instagram at double Elvis, on Twitter at Double
Speaker 1: Elvis FM, and now on Twitch, where we're streaming three
Speaker 1: days a week at Twitch dot tv slash Double Elvis Podcasts,
Speaker 1: and finally, be sure to check out disgrace Land, the
Speaker 1: award winning music and true crime podcast that I also host.
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is available only on the free Amazon Music. To
Speaker 1: hear tons of insane stories about your favorite musicians getting
Speaker 1: away with murder and behaving very badly, go to Amazon
Speaker 1: dot com slash disgrace Land, or if you have an
Speaker 1: Echo device, just say Alexa play the disgrace Land podcast,
Speaker 1: Rock Alone or Dad