Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles, who conducted the last ever interview with John Lennon, has died shortly before he was due to start a new presenting gig. He was 76.
His fellow presenter Mike Read shared the news on X on Sunday morning (23 March), writing: “Devastated to hear the news about our chum Andy Peebles.
“He was about to join us at Heritage [the UK’s only chart-based music show]. We joined Radio 1 together. Knew his music and inside out.”
He continued of the cricket fan and sports pundit: “Raise your bat and enjoy a long rest in the pavilion. We lunched recently with DLT and Adrian Juste. Great innings.”
Peebles’ family confirmed the news of his death to the BBC.
Born in 1948, Peebles began his career as a nightclub DJ in the late Sixties before joining BBC Radio Manchester in 1973, when he also presented for the BBC World Service.
He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1978, hosting the weekday evening show between 8pm to 10pm and interviewing stars including David Bowie, Paul Simon, Debbie Harry, Cliff Richard, Phil Collins and Roger Taylor.
Among his most memorable career moments was the last recorded interview with John Lennon on 6 December 1980.
Peebles, who conducted the interview just 48 hours before the musician’s death, was on his flight back from New York when Lennon was murdered outside his New York apartment building.
During the conversation Lennon – who had not spoken to the media for the last five years – opened up about the breakup of The Beatles, his tense relationship with the US government, and his plans for the future.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my life,” Peebles told CBS. “I’d grown-up not just idolising him but the group (The Beatles) and everything they’d done.”
Far from it being a highlight, however, Peebles later said the interview led him to the point of breakdown, as he found himself delivering live tributes on radio and television while still in shock over the news.
“I lost all sense of self-worth in the aftermath,” he told the Daily Mail. “It blighted my life, and stunted me… The obsession nearly drove me mad.
“I tormented myself with survivor’s guilt… He was the creator of some of the most brilliant music of the 20th century and will never be forgotten. I was nobody.”
He maintained a friendship with Ono and interviewed her again in 1983 in Tokyo, Japan.
The interview later became the subject of the 2020 documentary Lennon’s Last Weekend, directed by Brian Grant. The film was released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Lennon’s death.
Meanwhile, a series of photographs taken of Lennon and Yoko Ono taken during the interview by BBC producer Paul Williams were auctioned in 2015.
Social media tributes have poured in for Peebles from both listeners and fellow broadcasters.
Veteran broadcaster Tony Blackburn tweeting: “So sorry to hear that fellow DJ from radio1 when I was there Andy Peebles has passed away. He was a lovely man and a great broadcaster, very sad news. RIP Andy.”
