John Lennon regretted his political activism and was planning to return to his native U.K. in the months leading up to his murder, according to an old friend of the rocker.

The Beatles legend was a famous peace campaigner and an outspoken critic of former U.S. President Richard Nixon following his move to New York City in the 1970s.

But he later confessed to Joe Flannery, the Fab Four's booking agent during the band's early career, that he had gone overboard with his political statements and had made a "t**" of himself.

Lennon was also planning to return to his hometown of Liverpool and wanted to sail into the city on board luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2 as his fans lined the shore.

According to Britain's Daily Express, Flannery says he spoke to Lennon months before he was shot dead outside his New York apartment in 1980, and recalls, "We enjoyed a lengthy conversation. We talked a lot of rubbish of course. He was very well and happy but he missed Liverpool, he missed the others and he missed London but he told me at one stage that he regretted 'getting too political'. He said that he had made a bit of a 't** of himself'...

"'We should start talking about me coming home, before that b**tard Nixon gets me', he said. I was rather taken aback and asked him to explain. John launched into a diatribe against the former president. He was convinced that even out of office Nixon carried power and wanted him dead.

"He felt some kind of curse was hanging over him... His tone bothered me a little, expressing as it did what sounded like a touch of paranoia. 'It would be good to come home for a bit', he finally stated... He even suggested that I should fly out to New York when the time came to return with him on the liner. I was flattered but mentioned that I wondered whether the Qe2 could actually get down the Mersey (river in Liverpool). 'Look into it,' John shouted, 'I want to come home in a blaze of glory.'"