Chapman grew up in Georgia, and was a fan of British band the Beatles when they first became famous. He learned to play guitar and wanted to become a musician. He later became a fundamentalist Christian, and his values changed. He came to believe the Beatles were a bad influence on people, John Lennon in particular, because of Lennon's views on God and religion. When Lennon released his song "Imagine" in 1971, many fundamentalists disliked it. Chapman parodied the song, singing it as "Imagine John Lennon dead."