The Zombies’ Rod Argent recalled John Lennon’s wish about the band in a recent interview with Louder Sound. During the interview, the keyboardist was asked about the story of Lennon offering to manage The Zombies to keep the band together. Argent, revealing the Beatle’s wish, said:
“Years ago, someone told Chris White that John Lennon had said, ‘I really wish I could produce The Zombies.’ That’s the story I’ve heard. And that was a lovely thing to hear because The Beatles were gods to us.”
The Zombies had a coincidental encounter while recording in the studio. During the recording session in Abbey Road Studios, the band used Lennon’s mellotron that was used in the recording of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.’ The rocker recalled the day in an earlier interview and told:
“There was a very strange coincidence, which was that we recorded, as you said at the Abbey Road Studios, and we used John Lennon’s mellotron, as it turned out that the studio where we were recording was designed acoustically by the same guy that designed The Beatles’ studios, so that’s a real coincidence!”
Argent earlier revealed that he is both happy and regretful at the same time for The Zombies’ breakup, sharing that if the band had received immediate success, they would have stayed together. They then reunited in 2000 to play a few shows, after which they started recording albums.
The band recently released a new album entitled ‘Different Game,’ hoping to record the follow-up to 2015’s ‘Still Got That Hunger’ in early 2020. The band couldn’t do what they hoped for due to the pandemic, with Argent saying the band was ‘not content to record remotely.’ Instead, the band came back together at a later date to give the album the feel of a live performance.
Listen to ‘Dropped Reeling & Stupid’ from the album below.
