It’s been 40 years since John Lennon was killed and former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono, have paid tribute to him.

December 8th, 1980, will forever be known as one of the most infamous days in history due to the shooting of John Lennon, whose death is still being felt all these years later.

As we hit the 40th anniversary of the murder of Lennon, tributes have begun pouring in and leading the pack are none other than his former Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and his widow Yoko Ono.

Paul has spoken about Lennon quite a bit lately, most recently saying how he still mentally consults John while writing songs, and now he’s shared an emotional tribute to his late friend on Twitter.

“A sad sad day but remembering my friend John with the great joy he brought to the world,” wrote McCartney. “I will always be proud and happy to have known and worked with this incredible Scouser.”

Ringo also took to Twitter to celebrate his late friend, writing how he’s “asking every music radio station in the world sometime today [to] play ‘Strawberry Fields’ forever.”

The song request for ‘Strawberry Fields’ from Ringo is particularly emotional as the 1967 song was written by John about Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children’s home with a garden he used to play in as a kid.

Last but definitely not least, Yoko also took to Twitter to share her thoughts about the 40th anniversary of Lennon’s death.

Still affected by Lennon’s shooting, Yoko writes how “Sean, Julian, and I still miss him” and called for the need for gun control in America by sharing a statistic of how many people have been killed by guns in the country since Lennon was killed.

Both Sean and Julian also took to their social media accounts to pay tribute to their late father.

The impact of John Lennon’s death still reverberates strongly today and it’s clear that the love for him has only grown over the years since his passing.

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