John Lennon said that he was "not about to get myself shot" in a phone call with drummer Jim Keltner eight years before he was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman.

John Lennon, who rose to unimaginable fame first as one of the Beatles, then as a solo songwriter and activist, was shot and killed outside of his home in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.

John Lennon, who rose to unimaginable fame first as one of the Beatles, then as a solo songwriter and activist, was shot and killed outside of his home in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.

John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrive at a New York recording studio in 1980, a few months before he was shot to death on Dec. 8.

John Lennon, who rose to unimaginable fame first as one of the Beatles, then as a solo songwriter and activist, was shot and killed outside of his home in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.

John Lennon, who rose to unimaginable fame first as one of the Beatles, then as a solo songwriter and activist, was shot and killed outside of his home in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.

John Lennon, who rose to unimaginable fame first as one of the Beatles, then as a solo songwriter and activist, was shot and killed outside of his home in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.

John Lennon, who rose to unimaginable fame first as one of the Beatles, then as a solo songwriter and activist, was shot and killed outside of his home in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.