Author: The Beatles were a ‘spiritual force’

When John Lennon remarked in 1966 that the Beatles were then “more popular than Jesus” his comments prompted outrage in the United States. But this weekend the Vatican’s newspaper paid tribute to the band on the 40th anniversary of the release of the White Album in an article interpreted by some as a papal pardon for Lennon.

CNN’s Alessio Vinci spoke to Steve Turner, author of The Gospel According To The Beatles, about the controversy that helped to end the Beatles’ touring career.

Q: Was Lennon surprised by the storm his comment generated?

A: I think John Lennon was surprised because it had been said in a casual way to a journalist who was a personal friend of his and he had no idea it would cause that sort of controversy. When it did happen he was actually quite frightened because they were about to go off on tour and there were these threats to their lives and a clairvoyant made some predictions that their plane would crash. It was really quite frightening and they wanted to cancel the tour but they knew they couldn’t. They were under obligation to the tour promoters. And when he made his apology in Chicago, (the band’s) press officer told me that John was actually in tears before he went in to make the apology. Read Interview