Cee Lo-green has risked the wrath of some of the most protective fans in history after the singer covered John Lennon's 'Imagine' on NBC's New Year's Eve concert, changing the words of the famously atheist-suggesting song to instead embrace faith. Lennon, and of course The Beatles', fans are notoriously die-hard - something as small as one of the star's teeth went for a six-figure sum in a UK auction last Autumn - and Green's rendition of what's widely considered to be a classic track unsurprisingly hasn't gone down well with them if microblogging site Twitter's anything to go by.
Green had changed the line "and no religion too" by singing "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try. Imagine there's no countries/ It isn't hard to do /Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion is true." This led to online outrage, despite the soul performer being one of the more popular stars on the planet today, with one Twitter user using the hashtag "2011WrongnessSummedUp" when explaining "You sang Imagine in a fur coat & expensive jewelry and changed [the lyrics] to be pro-religion." Another meanwhile, sports journalist John Giannone, wrote "I am imagining the spin cycle inside John Lennon's grave right now."
Harsh words for Cee-Lo, though after an initial waver he did stick to his guns, the UK's Guardian reporting that he deleted initial replies apologising for changing the words, instead posting "Now playing: we just disagree [by] dave mason".