John Lennon claimed The Beatles were not very good musicians in a lost interview that has now sold for £3,100 at auction.
The tape was made by a student in 1964 and never broadcast.
John Hill was 18 when he sneaked into a press conference to record the chat – and then forgot about it.
He found the tape in 2014, after it had been in a drawer for 50 years. On the recording, John, then 24, said he would “probably just have been a layabout” if he had not become a Beatle.
He admitted he had been failing at college and revealed: “Some other lads did my exams for me.”
He told Mr Hill that he was reading A Clockwork Orange and Alice in Wonderland.
John also said he was a big fan of rivals the Rolling Stones, and was not bothered by the price of fame, saying: “Whatever I’d be, I’d choose to be rich – who wants to walk down the street?”
Mr Hill, who was studying at Hull Art College, recorded the eight-and-a-half minute reel-to-reel interview before a Beatles gig in Hull, after bluffing his way into the press conference.
Mr Hill, who later worked as a teacher and Leeds University lecturer, said: “I was the youngest person in the room and the only one with a microphone.
“Lennon was really interested in the reel-to-reel machine.
“We ended up in a corner doing an interview, with passing newsmen throwing in the odd question.”
Asked if The Beatles regarded themselves as musicians or entertainers, John replied: “I’ve never thought about it, really.
“But I suppose we don’t count ourselves as good musicians, so I suppose we’re entertainers.
“But we don’t entertain much 'cos we just stand there, so I suppose we must be musicians. We’re in the union anyway.”
After rediscovering the tape, Mr Hill sold it to a local collector in Hull, who put it up for sale at David Duggleby auctions, in Scarborough, North Yorks.
