Few would have guessed that several years later, a sober Lennon would see something far different in the sky — a UFO — and it would have a profound influence on his life.
A drawing of that 1974 sighting, sketched for his “Walls and Bridges” album, depicts what appears to be a classic flying saucer with the word “UFOer” written on the bottom of the object.
On the album’s liner notes, the famed musician wrote: “On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 o’clock I saw a U.F.O. J.L.”
Lennon, one of the most outspoken celebrities of his time, claimed he saw the alleged spacecraft above the Manhattan skyline. At the time, he was living on the East Side of the city.
That drawing was auctioned on March 21 by CooperOwen Auctions of London, reports OpenMinds.During the UFO sighting, Lennon shared an apartment with a girlfriend, May Pang, who, along with other eyewitnesses, also saw the UFO. Lennon subsequently mentioned the event in the song “Nobody Told Me,” recorded several years later. It was one of the last songs he would record before his 1980 murder.