For 10 years, the Beatles ruled the world. John Lennon came under fire for remarking that he and bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were “bigger than Jesus Christ.” We won’t address the veracity of that claim. However, the fact remains that the Liverpool quartet are still the best-selling musical act of all-time. Despite Lennon’s familiar swagger in interviews, Sean Ono Lennon says his father’s feelings toward fame were much more complicated than they seemed.
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Did John Lennon Fall Out of Love With Music?
In 1972, John Lennon permanently severed ties with his Beatle image during the One to One concert, a charity event held with wife Yoko Ono at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. He would never perform another full-length concert again. In December 1980, the 40-year-old died from a gunshot wound as he exited his home in New York City.
Lennon remarked after the Madison Square Garden gig that it “was the best music I enjoyed playing since The Cavern or even Hamburg.” Many interpreted that declaration as proof that the former Beatle was officially disillusioned with music. However, his son, Sean Ono Lennon, called this assumption ” a bit of a myth.” Sean recently spoke with BBC 6 Radio Music’s Chris Hawkins.
“I don’t feel that he’d fallen out of love with music,” said Sean, 49. “I think he’d fallen out of love with a certain kind of fame.”
Continuing, the British music producer mused that his father was merely disillusioned with his place in the “pop machine.”
“I think that was—even though he was always rebellious within that framework, I think that he still resented, you know, having to be a Beatle in a way,” Sean Lennon said. “I think he really wanted to move on from that, you know.”
He Said His Music Improved “A Millionfold”
Fans across the globe were devastated when Paul McCartney publicly confirmed the Beatles’ split in an April 1970 press release. According to John Lennon, however, the Fab Four’s dissolution was the best thing to ever happen to his individual career.
“I think my music’s improved a millionfold, lyric-wise and everything,” Lennon told NME in 1972.
He also praised another former bandmate whom he said found his groove post-breakup. “And Ringo’s coming out and writing ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ and now he’s going to write the title song for this cowboy thing he’s in, and he’s playing a really tough guy and all that,” he said. “It’s really beautiful.”
Featured image by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images
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