Watch: New Documentary About Lennon's Last Days

The new CNN documentary Losing Lennon: Countdown to Murder chronicles the final days of John Lennon's life through interviews with Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon and the police officers first on the scene. "It was hard to imagine it was reality," Julian Lennon says in the film. "Still to this day in so many ways it still feels like a dream." Watch the clips below.

John Lennon's Final Interview: Nine-hour discussion with Rolling Stone took place three days before he died

Julian Speaks
Lennon's oldest son discusses hearing about his father's death, the painful flight from London to New York and his tearful reunion with five-year-old Sean Lennon.

Photos: John Lennon's Final Years

Revisiting the Crime Scene
Former NYPD officers Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen were among the first to arrive at the Dakota after Lennon was shot. Cullen remembers seeing killer Mark David Chapman standing near the building reading Catcher in the Rye — and the creepy car ride with Chapman to the police station. "He even apologized for ruining our night," Cullen remembers. "I said, 'You've got to be kidding. You just ruined your whole life.'"

John Lennon's Last Days: Audio clips from Jonathan Cott's 1980 interview with Lennon, plus video, photos, playlists and more

The Killer's Wife Speaks
Before worldwide notoriety, Mark Chapman lived in Hawaii with his wife Gloria Chapman. She held a chilling press conference December 10, just two days after the killing.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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