December 8, 1980, musician John Lennon was shot and killed outside of his apartment building in New York City by a deluded fan. Producer Paul Ingles asked various people to recall how they heard the news and what John Lennon's music meant to them. The program also includes excerpts from an interview John and Yoko Ono gave the morning of December 8, "The Day John Lennon Died." December 8, 2020, commemorates the 40th anniversary of his death.
"...it was as if the world had stopped."
"...this guy comes running in and said 'John Lennon's been killed!' And I said, 'Yeah...right...' and he said 'no no it's true.' I looked more closely at him and saw that he was just ashen-faced. I went out into my car and turned the radio on. All the way across the dial, you heard Beatles songs. And it was as if...it was as if the world had stopped." - Martin Goldsmith
"...every time I would get off the subway at 72nd Street and Central Park West...it's just like this...overwhelming sadness." - Shawn Colvin
"...the checkout lady said she'd heard John Lennon had been killed. She said it was either John Lennon or Jack Lemmon. And I remember going out to my car and wishing it was Jack Lemmon...but it was John Lennon." - Jim Palmer
"...I think about him, every time I do something political, every time I do something I believe in or teach my child about what I believe in. I don't want to put him up on a pedestal because he wasn't a perfect human. I just...I think about him." - Emily Zambello
Listen Sunday, December 6 at 7 p.m. on WRVO, on-air and online.
