Music Trivia: John Lennon's interview in which he claims that the Beatles are "more popular than Jesus" is published on March 4, 1966

41 years ago today, March 4th, The London Evening Standard publishes an interview with John Lennon in which he claims that the Beatles are "bigger than Jesus."

This was barely noticed in the UK but when the news of this interview spread to America via an article published in a US Teen magazine called Datebook it started a backlash against John Lennon & The Beatles. Most of this backlash was in the Bible Belt region of the US.

Conservative Christian groups staged public Beatles record burnings and many radio stations in banned the Beatles music. Some venues even canceled Beatles concerts.

Lennon's quote was "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I don't know what will go first, rock n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

Here's a clip from a documentary called Beatles Revolution that features the Beatles during this time period.