Lennon on the cover of the December 23 issue of the Rolling Stone magazine. (AP)

London, Dec. 8 (Reuters): Rolling Stone magazine is publishing an interview with John Lennon, conducted three days before the former Beatle was gunned down in New York, in full for the first time.

The magazine said the nine-hour discussion with Jonathan Cott was the singer/songwriter’s final print interview. Lennon was murdered outside his apartment on December 8, 1980, aged 40.

Rolling Stone ran excerpts from the interview shortly after Lennon’s death, but Cott never transcribed all of the tapes until recently. “Earlier this year I was cleaning up to find some files in the recesses of my closet when I came across two cassette tapes marked ‘John Lennon, December 5th, 1980,’” Cott said.

“It had been 30 years since I listened to them, and when I put them on this totally alive, uplifting voice started speaking on this magical strip of magnetic tape.”

In the interview, Lennon lashed out at fans and critics who went after him during his five-year break from music. “What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean,” he said.