Producer Peter Asher ‘Rejects’ Idea He Broke Up The Beatles By Introducing John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Acclaimed producer Peter Asher revealed that he’s sometimes blamed for breaking up The Beatles, thanks to the role he played in introducing John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Asher, 82, is the subject of a new documentary about his life, Peter Asher: Everywhere Man. In the doc, people discuss the part of his life in which he co-owned a gallery that Lennon and Ono first met at while she was putting on an avant-garde art exhibit.

A clip of the documentary shows Lennon recalling going to the gallery to see Ono’s work during an appearance on David Frost’s long-running talk show.

“They were having a show at this gallery, and she had all these things, all these hammer nail things,” Lennon says in the clip, per People. “There was this ladder on a thing on the ceiling. So I climbed the ladder, and on the ceiling it said ‘Yes.’ If it had said ‘No,’ then I would have carried on with my preconceived ideas about art and artists…. But it said ‘Yes,’ and that was enough, you know. That was how we met actually.”

After the clip plays, the documentary cuts to Asher on a live stage sharing memories in front of the audience.

“Thank you,” Asher says. “It’s very interesting. That was a nice little round of applause. Sometimes it’s a ‘awww,’ you know, like, what a great love story. But other times, it’s a ‘grrr.'”

“And the most dramatic one, which has only happened once, but it was quite startling when it did, was as soon as the clip was over, John said, ‘and that’s when we met,’ some bloke in the audience jumped to his feet, pointed at me, and yelled at the top of his voice, ‘It was you! You broke up the Beatles!'” he continued.

While Asher is clearly lighthearted about the accusation today, he still makes it clear that he holds no responsibility for one of the greatest rock bands in history splitting up, saying he “rejects soundly and implication” that it’s his fault.

Although The Beatles broke up, Lennon remained with Ono until he was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment in 1980.