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Cee Lo Green Outrages John Lennon Fans by Changing Lyrics to 'Imagine'

Performed on New Year's Eve broadcast from Times Square

January 2, 2012 8:25 AM ET
Cee Lo Green performs during New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York City.
Cee Lo Green performs during New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York City.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for NIVEA

Cee Lo Green upset John Lennon fans on Saturday night by performing a soulful version of the songwriter's classic "Imagine" with the lyrics changed from "nothing to kill or die for / and no religion too" to "nothing to kill or die for / and all religion's true." According to some fans, Green changed the meaning of the song by switching out the line. "The whole point of that lyric is that religion causes harm," tweeted someone with the handle @geekysteven. "If 'all religion's true' it would be a pretty bleak place."

Green, who sang the song on NBC's New Year's Eve broadcast from Times Square, responded to criticism about the alteration by tweeting "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all." He responded directly to other angry Lennon fans on Twitter, but has since deleted all of the tweets.

You can watch Cee Lo Green's performance of "Imagine" in the clip below. Advance to the 3:55 mark for the beginning of the song.

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