John Lennon was well aware that he could one day be the victim of a lunatic toting a gun.
In the new documentary One to One: John & Yoko, he is seen talking on the phone in the early '70s to session drummer Jim Keltner, who asks him if he has “any paranoia” about people ahead of his Free the People Tour, which never happened.
“What people?" asked Lennon. "You mean people trying to kill us or something like that? I’m not about to get myself shot. It’ll cause excitement in its own way. But, er, you know, I’m still an artist, but a revolutionary artist, right?”
And later on in the film, Lennon talks to a reporter about concerns he and Yoko have for their safety.
“We started noticing people hanging outside the apartment. And I have a driver, he’s an ex-cop. But we’re getting followed by this car, all the time. So we’re all very nervous.”
Ironically, it was just that -- someone hanging outside their apartment building, The Dakota in New York City, Mark David Chapman, who shot and killed Lennon on December 8th, 1980.