More popular than Jesus John Lennon's comments. The 1966 "L'Osservatore Romano" article noted that Lennon had apologised for his comments and that fellow Beatle Paul McCartney had criticized them." In 2010, Starr said that he had now found religion, adding, "For me, God is in my life ... I think the search has been on since the 1960s." In 2012, the "Houston Press" music blog compared several aspects of popular media and concluded that Jesus is more popular than the Beatles. In 2015, "The Philippine Star" said that almost half a century later, Lennon's statement proved half-wrong, reporting that "rock 'n roll is dead
More popular than Jesus voted to cancel it rather than have "municipal facilities be used as a forum to ridicule anyone's religion", and also saying, "the Beatles are not welcome in Memphis". The Ku Klux Klan nailed a Beatles album to a wooden cross, vowing "vengeance", with conservative groups staging further public burnings of Beatles records. The Reverend Jimmy Stroad stated that a Christian rally in Memphis "would give the youth of the mid-South an opportunity to show Jesus Christ is more popular than the Beatles". The Memphis shows did take place, on 19 August; the afternoon show went as planned, but there was