John Lennon Was ‘So Happy’ in His Final Days, Says Friend — but Faced Unsettling Premonitions

John Lennon’s collaborator Jack Douglas opens up to PEOPLE in this week’s issue and in the new Apple TV+ docuseries ‘John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial’

The last time producer Jack Douglas saw John Lennon, the former Beatle was headed home after a hard day’s work in the studio. He and his wife, Yoko Ono, had been at Record Plant in New York City, recording what would become Ono’s 1981 single “Walking on Thin Ice.” As Lennon headed to the elevator, he smiled at Douglas, and told him he’d see him the next morning for their 9 a.m. studio call time.

“He was very positive,” Douglas tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue of the end of that session on Dec. 8, 1980. “They were both just so happy.”

It would be the last time Douglas saw his friend. As Lennon and Ono were about to enter the Dakota — the building where they lived with their son Sean — Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman, a young fan who’d sought the musician’s autograph earlier that day.

The shocking murder — which is being reexamined in John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, a three-part Apple TV+ docuseries premiering Wednesday — cut short a legendary life that had in recent years evolved from that of a hard-partying rock star to devoted dad focused on revitalizing his music career.

“There’s a lot more to the story than a lone gunman suddenly turns up, squeezes the trigger, end of story,” says Nick Holt, a director of the series. “A lot of people obviously lost an idol, but first and foremost, he very much [was] a dad and husband.”