“When it happened, you had this overall feeling, in the simplest way, that The Beatles would never be again,” Irsay said. “I mean, they’re not ‘taking a break.’ But, of course, The Beatles stood for much more than that. It was a time and place of the ’60s, and all the things that had happened with Bobby (Kennedy) and JFK and Martin Luther King and then (Muhammad) Ali and the ’70s. And then when this hit in 1980 — it’s hard to describe maybe to some younger people — it was really debilitating.
“It just brought so much sorrow. First of all, you had the simple fact that you had a young father at 40 who wouldn’t be able to raise his (5-year-old) son, Sean. And then you had his public immense figure: Just simply a guy who stood for peace, who stood for nonviolence … he was instrumental as a world-changer. It’s been said that ‘three chords and the truth will change the world,’ and that’s what John was about. He was one of the first guys ever to use a platform of his immense talent and his art to change the world, and that almost became more important to John than anything else.”
Irsay, who has befriended many of his rock heroes, never had a face-to-face interaction with Lennon — a person he idolized from a young age. However, he has gotten to meet a Beatle: In February of 1989, a little more than five years after his father, Robert, had moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis, Irsay visited with Paul McCartney and the rock legend’s late wife, Linda, on the day of a performance in Naptown.
“It was so surreal,” Irsay recalled. “We brought two of our three daughters — the little one (Kalen, now a Colts vice chairman) we left at home, which she’s still pissed off about today, ’cause she could have raised too much of a ruckus. It was Valentine’s Day in 1989 in Indy, and they’re doing soundcheck, and then my two daughters (Carlie and Casey) start saying, ‘When are we going to McDonald’s?’ And Linda’s like, ‘Well, you have to be a vegetarian … it’s very important, don’t mention McDonald’s,’ and we’re laughing.
“Paul and Linda were so gracious. They spent like an hour with us. And then we took a picture, and I remember taking the picture ’cause I had my arm around Paul, and I’m like, ‘My hand is on Paul McCartney’s collarbone right now! This is impossible!’ “
As much as he reveres McCartney, Irsay’s first and most lasting musical love remains Lennon.