1405 ROCK & ROLL’S DARKEST SECRETS: Richard Syrett Goes to Washington

**Richard Syrett** (0:00)
On this episode, I'm doing something a little different. Recently, I was invited to Washington DC to appear on one American news network's After Hours with John Hines to talk about my new book, Tales from the Rock & Roll Twilight Zone. And if you think you know the history of Rock & Roll, you may want to think again. Because behind some of the greatest music ever recorded are stories that refused to die. The strange rise of the Beatles, the mysterious deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Elvis Presley and Kurt Cobain, allegations of intelligence operations, mind control, occult influences, hidden agendas and those nagging questions the official histories never quite seemed to answer. John Hines and I got into all of it, including why I wrote the book and why decades later these mysteries still matter. So today I'm bringing that conversation to you.
From Washington DC, here's my appearance with John Hines on OANN's After Hours.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:57)
Richard Syrett's Strange Planet, following the truth wherever it leads, exposing evil and corruption and the secret machinations of powerful elites, revealing the high strangeness beneath the surface of our supposed reality, coming to you from the Great White North and his studio beneath the stairs. Here's Richard.

**John Hines** (1:38)
Welcome back to After Hours, everybody, OANN's long-form interview show where Washington newsmakers take off their ties, go beyond the soundbites, relax and tell you their stories. I'm John Hines, OANN's DC. Bureau Chief, Congressional Correspondent and, for better or worse, your Sherpa on this journey. Well, if you're interested in hearing from someone who says, the Beatles weren't just discovered but were manufactured to subvert the United States during the turbulent years following President John F. Kennedy's assassination, or if you're curious about Charles Manson's obsession with the Beatles and if you want to explore claims that powerful institutions, including intelligence agencies and major corporations, helped shape the careers of some of Rock & Roll's biggest icons that we have the guest for you.
Richard Syrett is an investigative journalist and is the author of Tales from the Rock & Roll Twilight Zone, Eerie Enigmas and the Supernatural Secrets from Rock's Darkest Corners. In the book, he dives into some of rock music's most enduring mysteries from alleged Beatles conspiracies and the Paul is Dead phenomenon. To Charles Manson's fascination with the band, claims of occult influences in the music industry and questions surrounding the death's legacies and hidden forces behind of some of Rock & Roll's biggest stars. Syrett also argues that Britain continued to wage a quieter form of cultural warfare against the United States after the Revolutionary War using entertainment, subversion and other unrestricted warfare techniques to shape American society. Richard, let's start at the beginning. What drew you into this that made you want to write a book by the legends of Rock & Roll, singers that defined generations?

**Richard Syrett** (3:29)
John, thanks for having me. Well, I was one of those young teenagers, like, you know, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of others who was busy in his parents' basement spinning vinyl. When a lot of my friends were into the punk scene or new wave a little bit later, I was into classic rock, the Dylan, Bob Dylan, the Doors, the Dead, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. And even at that young age, I had questions. I would read about Jimi Hendrix dying at 27 and Brian Jones at 27 and Jim Morrison at 27 I thought, what's going on here? What is this? Wasn't called the 27 Club then, we didn't know about that. But as I got older and I got into radio, these questions persisted and I eventually got my own platform and explored these questions and many others. Not just Rock & Roll, but just generally the official narrative and how it's not always a lie, but it's often incomplete.
That's what I hope I accomplish in this book, tugging on those loose threads and at least exploring some of these unanswered questions. I mean, it's not a manifesto. I don't claim to have all the answers or the truth, but at least I think we're opening the discussion here.

**John Hines** (4:43)
I'll dive right in here. I'll take the bait. Is Paul McCartney dead?

**Richard Syrett** (4:49)
In order to believe that, spoiler alert.

**John Hines** (4:51)
Here is your book, by the way. Here is the book.

**Richard Syrett** (4:53)
Thank you.

**John Hines** (4:54)
There is a chapter in which you go into some detail, that theory or what it's about, where it comes from.

**Richard Syrett** (5:01)
Yeah, this is a spoiler alert. All my cards on the table. In order to believe that Paul McCartney died in a fiery car crash in 1966 and was replaced by an almost exact replica, you'd have to believe they found, whether we're talking about the executives at EMI or George Martin or Brian Epstein or the remaining Beatles, that it would have had to have found an exact replica almost, who also played left-handed bass and was arguably more talented than the original Paul.