In 1963, John Lennon went on a trip to Spain with Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Epstein was gay, and the trip has become a subject of speculation in the years since. Lennon described their relationship as close to a love affair, and he once violently attacked someone for joking about it. While Lennon publicly said he and Epstein never consummated the relationship, his friend, Pete Shotton, said Lennon told him otherwise in private.
John Lennon’s friend recalled what he told him about Brian Epstein
When Lennon left for Spain with Epstein, rumors immediately flew. Shotton joked about the stories with Lennon when he next saw him, and was surprised when Lennon reacted with a groan. Shotton claimed Lennon told him that “something did happen with [Epstein] one night.”
“What happened is that Eppy just kept on and on at me,” Lennon said, per Shotton’s book The Beatles, Lennon, and Me. “Until one night I finally just pulled me trousers down and said to him: ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Brian, just stick it up me f***ing arse then.”’
According to Shotton, Epstein told Lennon that this was not what he wanted.
“And he said to me, ‘Actually, John, I don’t do that kind of thing. That’s not what I like to do.’
“‘Well,’ I said, ‘what is it you like to do, then?’
“And he said, ‘I’d really just like to touch you, John.’
“And so I let him toss me off.”
Shotton said that neither he nor Lennon saw this as a big deal.
“No need to get so worked up,” Shotton told Lennon. “You know I don’t give a s***. What’s a f***ing wank between friends anyway?”
John Lennon once attacked someone over the rumors about Brian Epstein
Lennon only groaned when Shotton teased him about the rumors about Epstein. On Paul McCartney’s 21st birthday, though, he flew into a violent rage when someone brought it up.
“I was out of my mind with drink. (You know, when you get to the point where you want to drink out of all the empty glasses, that drunk),” Lennon said, per The Beatles Anthology. “And Bob [Wooler] was saying, ‘Come on, John, tell me about you and Brian — we all know.’”
He attacked Wooler so viciously that he spent several weeks in the hospital. Wooler later sued Lennon.
Paul McCartney shared why he thought his bandmate went on the trip
McCartney believed Lennon went on a trip with Epstein in order to gain further prominence in The Beatles.
“Brian Epstein was going on holiday to Spain at the same time and he invited John along,” he said. “John was a smart cookie. Brian was gay, and John saw his opportunity to impress upon Mr. Epstein who was the boss of this group. I think that’s why he went on holiday with Brian. And good luck to him, too — he was that kind of guy; he wanted Brian to know whom he should listen to. That was the relationship. John was very much the leader in that way, although it was never actually said.”
Epstein even admitted that early on, he felt much closer to Lennon than the other Beatles.
