An interview with John Lennon, thought to have been lost and discovered in a basement by a radio producer who spoke to the late musician 50 years ago, reveals that the former member of the Beatles feared the US government was tapping his phone.

Nikki Horne was 24 and an up-and-coming DJ at London’s Capital Radio when he was invited to the star’s New York apartment for an extended interview, according to a report in The Guardian.

While parts of the interview were broadcast on Capital in 1975, Horn recently found the original tapes in a dusty box at home.

John Lennon, who sued the Nixon administration for illegal phone tapping and surveillance amid his battle to avoid deportation, speaks out about his suspicions. The Beatles singer says he is being monitored because of his anti-war activism.

He further explains that he “just wanted to drop” his fourth solo album, Walls and Bridges, until friends convinced him not to.

In an interview in a Boom Radio special to be broadcast today, veteran radio producer and broadcaster Nicky Horn recounted his meeting with John Lennon in his Dakota apartment building, outside of which the songwriter was shot and killed five years later by Mark David Chapman.

John Lennon clarifies, among other things, to Horn that he can tell when the phone is normal when he picks it up and when there is a lot of noise.

He said that while he could not prove the interception of telephone conversations at the time, he knew that there was a lot of repair work going on in the basement of the Dakota Building.

John Lennon’s interview with Nikki Horn is being broadcast today, on the eve of the singer-songwriter’s 85th birthday.