Who were John Lennon s music role model?

Elvis Presley was Lennon's first hero of note... a friend played him "Heartbreak Hotel" early in 1956, and Lennon said later "It was so beautiful, I couldn't speak." When The Beatles met Presley in 1965, Lennon reportedly told him to his face "Before you, there was nothing."

Lennon also spoke highly of his college friend Stuart Sutcliffe (the original Beatles bass player, who tragically died at 21 from a brain hemorrhage), and later admired artists like Michel Duchamp.
Elvis Presley.