John Lennon Interviews a "drug Addict"!

John Lennon teases journalist Al Aronowitz on the train ride to Washington D.C., February 11, 1964.

Al Aronowitz is the man credted with introducing The Beatles to Bob Dylan and also marijuana, an event that would forever change the course of rock music.

The famous meeting took place on August 28, 1964, while The Beatles were staying at the Delmonico Hotel in New York City. According to John Lennon's interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan "thought 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' - when it goes 'I can't hide' - he thought we were singing 'I get high.' So he turns up with Al Aronowitz and turns us on, and we had the biggest laugh all night - forever."

A friend of Al's says this:

"Al was one of the very first American journalists who took their music seriously and he gave them a TREMENDOUS boost in the American press and the American Music market in general. The interview on the train was when The Beatles did their first shows in Washington, DC. That was one of the very first interviews Al did with the lads.

He was VERY close to all of them, but especially to George Harrison and John Lennon .Al remained close to John until John's death. Al kinda drifted off slowly from George as both Al and George's health began failing.

George was a WONDERFUL man who did MANY kind acts of generousity the public never heard about, including for Al.
When Al went into sky-high debt when his wife was stricken with cancer and Al had no medical insurance it was GEORGE who came to his rescue by "lending" Al a HUGE amount of money:enough to pay of Als' mortgage and pay for ALL of Al's wife's medical bills. Bless George: he knew AL would NEVER be able to pay him back and George NEVER asked him about it EVER..what a SAINT!"

Al was also responsible for getting The Velvet Underground their first gig in a high school auditorium and was the group's manager before Andy Warhol "discovered" them.

And according to Al, Bob Dylan wrote his folk masterpiece, "Mr. Tambourine Man" while staying in Aronowitz's Berkeley Heights, NJ home!

*thanks Babyhowdy233 for identifying Al and sharing info.