"We're more popular than Jesus now," said John Lennon during an interview with the London Evening Standard 50 years ago today on March 4, 1966.

The words would turn Christians across America against the Beatles, easily the biggest pop music act in the world at the time.

Lennon made the remark to journalist Maureen Cleave for a series called "How does a Beatle live?"

The full quote was: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

No one in Great Britain paid much attention when the story ran. But, months later, when the teen magazine Datebook across the pond splashed the "more popular than Jesus " quote over its front page without context, America's Bible Belt took notice.

It was not pleased.

Beatles records and memorabilia were burned in bonfires. Disc jockeys refused to play the band's 45s (vinyl singles).

The reaction and criticism dampened the Beatles' enthusiasm to tour the U.S. in August. But the tour went on despite the protests. The band received threats over the phone and faced picketing by the Ku Klux Klan, which at one venue nailed a Beatles album to a wooden cross.

In Memphis, someone set off a firecracker on stage, further wracking nerves. Manager Brian Epstein pressed Lennon to make an apology for the "more popular" remark.

A reluctant Lennon told a reporter, "If you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."

By the end of August, the Beatles had had enough of touring. The band's concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on Aug. 29 was its last. From then on, they would perform together in the studio.

See mostly candid Beatles photos from 1966 in the above gallery.