Laurie Kaye wrote and coproduced numerous radio rock specials for RKO. On December 8, 1980, rock journalist Laurie entered the legendary Dakota apartments to co-conduct an interview with John Lennon. It was the last interview John would ever give—just hours later, outside that same building was tragically assassinated.
This year will mark the 43rd anniversary of John’s death, and December 8th will also be the official release date of her book: Confessions of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Name-Dropper. We spoke with Laurie about John Lennon, about that December 8th, about some of the topics she includes in her book, and this is what she told us …
BEATLES MAGAZINE: How did the idea for this book come about? You’ve had a lot of activity during these years, both personally and professionally.
LAURIE KAYE: Believe it or not, decades ago I’d already been planning to write a book about my super cool early career in rock radio and the amazing interviews I’d already conducted…in fact when John Lennon told me at the tail end of our Dakota interview on December 8th 1980 that he was especially excited when he was able to get books signed by their authors, I let him know that when MY book came out, I’d be happy to give him an autographed copy, and he said that would be GREAT !
But sadly, after John was shot and killed later that night, I felt so much sorrow and depression and yes, even guilt, that I concentrated solely on continuing my life with career, relationship and location changes, so I didn’t actually start writing my memoir until 2020. That’s when the pandemic hit, so my work in TV production came to a hault and I finally had time to concentrate on the book people had been asking me to consider writing for years!
BM: Was it easy to coordinate and conduct the interview with John & Yoko? Where exactly was the location of the interview? How long was the RKO Radio team with John & Yoko on December 8, 1980?
LK: The Lennon/Ono interview got set up thanks to Warner Bros/Geffen Records Bert Keane and RKO/KFRC’s Dave Sholin, who were both part of our team along with Producer/Engineer Ron Hummel. The 4 of us spent pretty much the entire afternoon with John and Yoko in their private office at the Dakota, and since Dave and I were the actual interviewers we were told from the start to NOT bring up either the Beatles or John’s past ! We were advised to concentrate solely on his current relationship with Yoko and their 5 year old son Sean and of course the creation and release of their first album in years, Double Fantasy!
BM: Could you share any details from the interview that you remember not including in your book?
LK: To be honest I pretty much cover the entire interview in my book, and not just John and Yoko’s answers to our questions about their daily life together and how Double Fantasy came about, but all the details and descriptions of how, when and where they originally met, and their first date two years later when they excitedly recorded Two Virgins and made love as the sun came up!
BM: When you met John in person, what did you feel? How did you perceive John?
LK: John Lennon was super humorous as well as loving and caring when it came to not just Yoko and their son, but also about being able to create and release music based on being the rock and roll loving musician he’d been for so many years – since he was a teen! What made me feel especially tremendous during our interview was the fact that I’d never felt as validated or appreciated nearly as much during any other musician meet-up I’d ever had! I still think all the time about how wonderful it was to have John react to my questions, comments, and the cool things I brought with me by often looking right at me and saying “YES, LOVE!”, “EXACTLY”, and so many more complimentary remarks!
BM: You had the opportunity to be with the McCartneys in 1979. What was the most striking thing about this interview?
LK: It was beyond cool to be sent to London with our RKO team – Dave Sholin and Ron Hummel – to interview Paul, Linda and their latest line-up of Wings in June 1979 to celebrate the release of Back to the Egg. Paul and Linda were so very personal and funny, and enjoyed talking about everything from how much they dug being able to perform live on stage together as loving best friends, to raising their children, to getting stoned!
BM: A year before, you had conversed with George… Did you have any contact with Ringo?
LK: I was fortunate to be able to interview George Harrison in late ’78 shortly after his marriage to Olivia and the birth of their son Dhani! It was a last minute phoner primarily for the 12 hour radio special I was writing for RKO and Drake-Chenault called The Top 100 of the 70’s, but George was still great to talk to and get to know, and it was absolutely terrific! The 14 hour Beatles special I’d already written and co-produced, RKO Presents the Beatles, was about to be syndicated and expanded to 15 and then 17 hours, so bites from my interview with George were also added to that and we were able to change the title to the one I’d come up with when we first started – The Beatles From Liverpool to Legend! Although I was able to have an awesome in-person interview with producer George Martin way back just after his book came out – All You Need Is Ears – sadly I never did get to schedule an interview with Ringo – I of course hope that may still happen one day!
BM: This December 8 marks 43 years since that interview. From your personal perspective, what does that moment represent today?
LK: I still consider it to be the Best and Worst day of my life, and I doubt that will ever change.
Confessions of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Name-Dropper is Laurie’s life leading up to John Lennon’s last interview, her memoirs, the story of her early years and her rock radio career surrounding the final interview with John Lennon.
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