“He shoved me down to the floor of the car. He was kicking the windows. The whole time he's yelling at the top of his lungs, ‘Yoko! I want Yoko!’” The wild story of John Lennon's rock ’n’ roll covers album

John Lennon performing on the ABC TV special 'Salute to Sir Lew – The Master Showman' at the Grand Hilton Hotel in New York City in 1975.

Back in 1998, on the eve of the release of the extensive John Lennon Anthology box set – which featured four discs of previously unreleased material – Guitar World gathered a number of the Beatle's closest collaborators, including Yoko Ono, to discuss the ups and downs of his solo career.

The ups were legion, of course – the raw fury of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; Imagine, whose piano-led, plea-to-humanity title track became arguably as synonymous with the man as any of the songs he penned for the Beatles; Double Fantasy, a thoroughly contemporary, and later incredibly bittersweet, document of a man who had finally found peace.