Elon Musk has disclosed that he faced assassination attempts by “two homicidal maniacs” in the past seven months.
The Tesla CEO revealed this during a recent shareholder meeting, drawing parallels between himself and the late Beatles legend, John Lennon.
Responding to an anonymous shareholder’s inquiry about ensuring his health and safety, Musk acknowledged the need to perhaps start working out to prevent being “assassinated.”
“I will endeavor to stay alive,” Musk said.
He made these remarks during the question and answer session of the electric vehicle company’s annual shareholders meeting last week, highlighting the challenges of his high-profile status.
Musk said: “I mean, it is getting a little crazy these days. The probability that a homicidal maniac will try to kill you is proportionate to how many homicidal maniacs hear your name. They hear my name a lot, so I’m like, ‘OK, I’m on the list,’ you know,” he chuckled.
Musk then revealed that Tesla “actually did have two homicidal maniacs in the last roughly seven months come to aspirationally try to kill me, and a bunch of other people — so it’s not just me.
“And then there wasn’t like an actual issue that they articulated, they were just in the homicidal maniac career, so I do need to be kind of careful,” Musk said.
Musk mentioned that he has been compelled to “be more cautious” as a result and has ceased signing items for fans who approach him in public.
He then drew a comparison between himself and Lennon, who was infamously shot and killed outside the Dakota Apartments in Manhattan in 1980 by Beatles superfan Mark David Chapman, just moments after Lennon had signed an album for him.