“Playboy: We’ve heard it said that when you first went to America you were doubtful that you’d ever make it over there.
John: That’s true. We didn’d think we were going to make it at all. It was only Brian telling us we were gonna make it. And George. Brian Epstein, our manager, and George Harrison. ”
“Playboy: As hard-bitten refugees from the Liverpool slums – according to heart-rending fan magazine biographies-do you feel prepared to cope with all this sudden wealth?
Paul: We’ve managed to make the adjustment. Contrary to rumor, you see, none of us were brought up in any slums or in great degrees of poverty. We’ve always had enough; we’ve never been starving. John: yeah, we say those articles in the American fan mags that ‘Those boys struggled up from the slums …’
George: We never starved. Even Ringo hasn’t.
Ringo: Even I. “
” Playboy: We’d better change the subject, then. Do you remember the other night when this girl came backstage …
George: naked …
Playboy: Unfortunately not. And she said ...
George: “It’s been a hard day’s night.”
Playboy: No, she pointed at you, George, and said, “There’s a Beatle!” And you others said, “That’s George.” and she said, “No, it’s a Beatle.”
John: And you said, “This way to the bedroom.”
Playboy: No, it was, “Would you like us to introduce you to him?”
John: I like my line better.
Playboy: Well, the point is that she didn’d believe there was such a thing as an actual Beatle *person*.
John: She’s right, you know. “
“Playboy: This talk of violence leads to a related question. Do you think there’ll be another war soon?
George: Yeah, Friday.
Ringo: I hope not. Not just after we1ve got our money through the taxes. “
“Playboy: You guys seem to be pretty irreverent characters. Are any of you churchgoers?
John: No.
George: No.
Paul: Not particularly. But we’re not antireligious. We probably seem to be antireligious because of the fact that none of us believe in God.
John: If you say you don’t believe in God, everybody assumes you’re antireligious, and you probably think that’s what we mean by that. We’re not quite sure *what* we are, but I know we’re more agnostic than atheistic.
Playboy: Are you speaking for the group or just yourself?
John: For the group.
George: John’s our official religious spokesman.
Paul: We all feel roughly the same. We’re all agnostics.
John: Most people are, anyway.
Ringo: It’s better to admit it than to be a hypocrite.
John: The only thing we’ve got against religion is the hypocritical side of it, which I can’t stand. Like the clergy is always moaning about people being poor, while they themselves are all going around with millions of quid worth of robes on. That’s the stuff I can’t stand.
Paul: A new bronze door stuck on the Vatican.
Ringo: Must have cost a mighty penny.
Paul: But believe it or not, we1re not anti-Christ.
Ringo: Just anti-Pope and anti-Christian. “
” Paul: All right, we know John’s spotless. But when a thing like that gets into the newspapers, everybody goes very, very, Puritan, and they pretend they don’t know what sex is about.
George: They get so bloody virtuous all of a sudden.
Paul: Yes, and some poor heel has got to take the brunt of the whole thing. But in actual fact, if you ask the average Briton what they really think of the Profumo case, they’d probably say, “He was knockin’ off some bird. So what?”
Playboy: Incidentally, you’ve met Mandy Rice-Davies, haven1t you?
George: What are you looking at *me* for?
Playboy: Because we hear she was looking at *you*.
John: We did meet Christine Keeler.
Ringo: I’ll tell you who *I* met. I met what’s-her-name – April Ashley.
John: I met her too, the other night.
Playboy: Isn’t she the one who used to be a man, changed her sex and married into the nobility?
John: That’s the one.
Ringo: She swears at me, you know. But when she sobers up she apologizes.
John: Actually, I quite like her. Him. It. That.
Paul:changed sex” – saying things like that in print to most people seems so shocking; whereas in actual fact, if you really think about it, it isn’t. Just saying a thing like that sounds more shocking than it is. “
” Playboy: What do you think of our Clubs?
Ringo: They’re for dirty old men, not for the likes of us – dirty *young* men. They’re for businessmen who sneak out without their wives knowing, or if their wives sneak out first, for those who go out openly.
George: There1s no real fun in a bunny’s fluffy tail.
Playboy: Then you don’t think a Club will make it here?
George: Oh yes, ‘course it will.
Ringo: There’s enough dirty old men here “