The arena was one of the few stops on The Beatles' final American tour in 1966. The group played two concerts there on August 19, 1966; in the wake of protests and boycotts of the band over John Lennon's controversial "more popular than Jesus" remarks, Memphis city council called for the cancellation of the concerts for safety reasons. The event still went on, although they were met by protests by the Ku Klux Klan, an anonymous assassination threat against "one or all" of the band's members, and an audience member exploding a firecracker on-stage during one of the performances (which was initially believed to be a gunshot).