Producer Jack Douglas recalls John Lennon’s final recording session: “He was very happy”

Producer Jack Douglas, who produced the John Lennon and Yoko Ono album Double Fantasy, is opening up about Lennon's final days, as we approach the 43rd anniversary of the legendary Beatle's death.

"He was very positive," Douglas tells People about his final session with Lennon before his December 8, 1980, murder. "They were both just so happy."

Double Fantasy wound up being Lennon's final album. He was shot by Mark David Chapman outside his Manhattan building, The Dakota, as he was returning home from the studio.

Douglas says had Lennon not died, he'd go beyond the album's release, noting he was planning a tour and even thinking about working with his former bandmates as a backup on Ringo Starr's next release.

As happy as Lennon, however, he appeared to have a feeling that his death would come soon, Douglas says.

“He spoke about death every once in a while. He would say things like, ‘I might be gone soon.’ He would say, ‘When I die, it’s going to be bigger than Elvis,’” Douglas explains. “He insisted on journals being kept for every moment, everything being documented … It felt like he had a feeling something was coming, and he was very intuitive about things. Extremely. Almost supernaturally about things.”

Douglas shares more about Lennon and his death in the new Apple TV+ docuseries, John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, which premieres December 6.

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