An article appeared in the *London Evening Standard* on March 4, 1966 that would eventually cause quite an uproar. Journalist Maureen Cleave was doing a series titled "How Does a [Beatle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles) Live?" and her encounter with [John Lennon]((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon)) provided controversy that spread far beyond the London paper.

“_Christianity will go,” he had said. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I know I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock & roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me._”

Lennon himself barely remembered saying it. The interview had been published in the *London Evening Standard* that March without controversy. But when it was reprinted in the American teen magazine *Datebook* on July 29th, the quote set off an international furor that threatened the Beatles’ future – and their lives. It caused quite an uproar that would change the Beatles forever.

Alabama disc jockeys Doug Layton and Tommy Charles of WAQY initiated a "Beatle Boycott" urging people to take their Beatles "records and paraphernalia" to designated places to burn them. The Beatles, and Lennon in particular, were momentarily the devil incarnate to the Bible Belt and beyond, just as they were about to begin a U.S. tour.

"John is deeply concerned and regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way whatsoever," said Beatles manager Brian Epstein at a press conference. "I'm not anti-Christ or anti-religion or anti-God," Lennon argued in a separate press conference. "I'm not saying we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person, or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and was wrong, or was taken wrong, and now it's all this." Paul McCartney in an interview recently said Lennon s character was very cocky and confident, but this incident had sure made him nervous.

He continued his explanation: "If I'd have said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it," Lennon said. "In reference to England, we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here."

Lennon and the band survived the ordeal, and the tour went on as planned. But the controversy as a result of his statements, which included death threats, was one of the reasons why the Beatles decided to give up the road upon the tour's completion.

This statement holds a legacy in the music industry and is believed to be one of the root causes of Lennon's murder. In 1997, Noel Gallagher claimed his band Oasis was "_Bigger Than God_", though reaction was minimal. A remark like that wouldn't have caused an outrage in present times, but for what it was, it's a very significant event in history of _Rock N Roll_ and music.