The Beatles legend John Lennon had gone through a dark past before he started advocating for peace and love.

Mirror UK reports a video released by the TV show 'It Was Alright In The 1960s' recently showed Lennon's controversial sense of humor while mocking disabled people during a live performance.

This video brought back the 'Imagine' singer's less-known dark history in domestic violence and physical and emotional abuse.

Before he was married to Yoko Ono, Lennon was admittedly violent towards his first wife, Cynthia, whom he had his first son with.

"All that 'I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved' was me," Lennon told Playboy Magazine in his 1980 interview. "I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically - any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women."

Cynthia later wrote books entitled "A Twist of Lennon" and "John" --- which was about the former couple's troubled marriage. In one part, she mentioned about being slapped by the rock star during his jealous moments.

His son with Cynthia, Julian, has also spoken out on his father's emotional abuse claiming Lennon's former band mate, Paul McCartney was more like the father to him. "Mum was more about love than Dad. He sang about it, he spoke about, but he never really gave it, at least not to me as his son," he told Record Collector Magazine.

In another chat with Playboy, Lennon was disturbingly open about Julian being a child "born out of a bottle of whiskey."

"I'm not going to lie to Julian. Ninety percent of the people on this planet, especially in the West, were born out of a bottle of whiskey on a Saturday night, and there was no intent to have children," he said.

Years later, Lennon recalled his violence as a motivation for calling for peace and love.

"That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace," he told Playboy in 1980. "I am not violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster."