122 “Who are these four creeps to put themselves above the High and Mighty?”: Doyle, “Burn the Beatles, 1966.”

123 “Letters arrived at the house full of threats, hate, and venom”: Cynthia Lennon, A Twist of Lennon (London: Star Books, 1978), quoted in “The Beatles—A Day in the Life, March 4, 1966,” BeatlesRadio.com.

123 Psychics are sending him their predictions: Cynthia Lennon, John (New York: Crown, 2005), 190.

123 “What will it cost to cancel the tour?” Jordan Runtagh, “When John Lennon’s ‘More Popular Than Jesus’ Controversy Turned Ugly,” Rolling Stone, July 29, 2016.

124 “They’d been poor boys who’d worked hard and made money”: Peter Taylor-Whiffen, “The Beatles’ Accountant Fifty Years On: They Were Scruffy Boys Who Didn’t Want to Pay Tax,” The Telegraph, July 23, 2017.

124 around $4 million: Doyle, “Burn the Beatles, 1966.”

124 “If anything were to happen to any of you”: Runtagh, “When John Lennon’s ‘More Popular Than Jesus’ Controversy Turned Ugly.”

Chapter 31

125 “I wasn’t saying the Beatles are better than Jesus or God or Christianity”: John Dodge, “On This Day in Chicago, 1966: John Lennon Apologized for ‘Jesus’ Comment,” CBS Chicago, August 12, 2014.

125 “just loses its meaning or its context immediately”: “The Beatles—A Day in the Life, March 4, 1966,” BeatlesRadio.com.

126 “I felt very bad for John during the whole episode”: Paul McCartney, interview with the authors, 2019.

126 “I didn’t want to talk because I thought they’d kill me”: Jordan Runtagh, “When John Lennon’s ‘More Popular Than Jesus’ Controversy Turned Ugly,” Rolling Stone, July 29, 2016.

126 “hail Beatles in Chicago”: Jack Doyle, “Burn the Beatles, 1966: Bigger Than Jesus?,” PopHistoryDig.com, October 11, 2017.

126 “the story of protest kicked up recently by Beatle John Lennon”: Doyle, “Burn the Beatles, 1966.”

126 “some foundation to the latest observations of John Lennon”: Doyle, “Burn the Beatles, 1966.”

126 Beatles bonfires: Doyle, “Burn the Beatles, 1966.”

127 “I created another little piece of hate in the world”: Leroy Aarons, “‘Can’t Express Myself Very Well,’ Beatle Apologizes for Remarks,” Washington Post, August 15, 1966.

127 “not welcome in the City of Memphis”: John Beifuss, “Memphis Leaders Gave Beatles Icy Reception,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), August 10, 2006.

127 “actually threatening to assassinate John Lennon”: Bob Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography (New York, Back Bay, 2006), 632.

127 “You might as well paint a target on me”: Runtagh, “When John Lennon’s ‘More Popular Than Jesus’ Controversy Turned Ugly.”

127 “frightened by things”: Carol Clerk, “George Harrison,” Uncut, February 2002.

128 “There was always an edge in America”: Runtagh, “When John Lennon’s ‘More Popular Than Jesus’ Controversy Turned Ugly.”

128 ticket price of $5.50: Steve Pike, “The Beatles in Memphis,” WKNOFM.org, August 23, 2013.

128 “I love Jesus, but I love those Beatles, too”: UPI, “Beatles Win Contest,” Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, Tennessee), August 20, 1966.

128 “they thought snipers might shoot us”: Spitz, The Beatles, 635.

128 “each thought it was the other that had been shot”: The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000), 227.

128 “blast off into double-time”: “Bang That Turned the Beatles Off,” Sydney Morning Herald, July 2, 2008.

128 “The four performers didn’t bat an eye or miss a note”: UPI, “Beatles Win Contest.”