Why Was Lennon So Angry During the 1970 RS Interview?

[Norbert K]

That's a real question; I'm not sure what the answer is.

However, John had removed himself from the supposed "humiliation" of the Beatles. He was with the woman he supposedly loved. He had benefitted greatly, he believed, from primal scream therapy. And he had just completed Plastic Ono Band, which he deemed "the best thing I've ever done."

Alright, so why on earth was Lennon so angry?

[Pamela Brown]

I get the impression that everything he once believed in has turned to ashes. He's seeing things clearly and it hurts. He started the Beatles. He was the Beatles. When Brian died, Paul took over, for reasons of his own. It was all a myth....

And he saw through Bob Dylan...(most people don't)...

https://www.johnlennon.com/music/interviews/rolling-stone-interview-1970/#:~:text=to%20learn%20more.-,In%20December%201970%2C%20Rolling%20Stone%20founder%20and%20publisher%20Jann%20Wenner,breakup%20and%20much%2C%20much%20more.
Pamela

[Norbert K]

Dylan's an emperor with no clothes. Lennon turned on Dylan at some point (he trashed Dylan's Christian song "Gotta Serve Somebody"), but not after having gone through a "Dylan phase" during which he wrote songs such as "I'm A Loser" and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away." John's "Yer Blues" has a Dylan reference.

The Leibovitz photographs from the time of this interview show Lennon as pale and hairy. He was in a heroin phase, I suspect.