Whether famous or not, children are often compared to their parents regardless of how similar they actually are, and the Beatles’ sons are certainly no exception to this rule. The children of three out of the four Beatles started making headlines in June 2025 for their first collaboration as a trio.
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Sean Ono Lennon, James McCartney, and Zak Starkey (sons of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr, respectively) joined forces to release a song called “Rip Off.” Dhani Harrison, George Harrison’s son, is notably absent from the collab, which has prompted the online community to make pretty hilarious observations about the similarities between Dhani and his dad.
The Beatles’ Sons Carry On The Next Generation
Of the three Beatles children who collaborated on “Rip Off,” Zak Starkey is the one who was alive to actually witness the Beatles’ apex of fame in real-time. The son of Ringo Starr was born in 1965, just one year after the Fab Four made their historic American television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. While he was only a toddler by the time the band called it quits, he was well within the memory-making age to see his father leave his post as the iconic band’s lovable, somewhat mopey drummer.
Sean Ono Lennon came along next. The second son of John Lennon, he was the first son of Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono. Tragically, Sean was only five years old when Mark David Chapman assassinated his father outside of their New York City home at the Dakota. James McCartney is the youngest of the three Beatles’ sons, born in 1977 to Paul McCartney and his first wife, Linda McCartney. Even after the Beatles split, its founding members were (and in McCartney and Starr’s case, are) incredibly ubiquitous public figures.
This enduring legacy has been an unavoidable shadow for the children of the Beatles, many of whom have pursued musical careers of their own. Zak, Sean, and James’ decision to collaborate on “Rip Off’ has Beatles fans (and non-fans) wondering if a new era of the Fab Four, er, three is underway. As for the lack of Dhani Harrison? Well, the internet has plenty to say about that, too.
The Internet Responds To Dhani Harrison’s Absence
Dhani Harrison is younger than all three of the aforementioned Beatles’ sons, born on August 1, 1978, to George and Olivia Harrison. As news of Zak Starkey, Sean Ono Lennon, and James McCartney’s collaboration circulates farther and wider, the online community has started to hilariously point out that Dhani not participating in this “reunion” of sorts is about the most George Harrison thing he could possibly do. The “Quiet Beatle” famously checked out of the band before any of the other members, disillusioned by the egos and pressures that came with being in the most famous band in the world.
In fact, George was never keen on sharing his experience in the Beatles with his son. Dhani realized there was more to his father than he realized when a group of classmates chased him around the schoolyard singing “Yellow Submarine.” “I came home and freaked out on my dad,” Dhani recalled in the documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World. He asked his dad, “Why didn’t you tell me you were in the Beatles?” George replied, “Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.”
To be fair, to assume that Starkey, Lennon, and McCartney are simply replicas of their fathers would discredit all of them as autonomous individuals with their own styles, experiences, and inspirations. Still, we can’t help but chuckle at the likelihood that, of all the Beatles, it would be George Harrison’s son who opts out of this Beatles 2.0 situation.
Photo by Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock
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