Why Radiohead’s Thom Yorke Is so Infatuated With John Lennon’s Voice: “I’m a Little Bit Obsessed”

All professional musicians are just like you and me—they are enormous music fans. Frankly, if they weren’t, they probably wouldn’t be successful musicians, as being a true student of the craft leads to greatness in the field. One of the most beloved and talked-about musicians among other musicians is John Lennon, and one artist who is infatuated with him is Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

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The Beatles and Radiohead likely hold more differences than similarities, but that doesn’t mean the former didn’t influence the latter. One could argue that The Beatles have inspired every band that has come after them. Maybe not directly, but certainly in some incidental way. It seems they directly influenced Radiohead, as Thom Yorke once raved about the many nuances of John Lennon’s voice.

If Thom Yorke Could Talk to Anyone, He Would Talk to John Lennon

In the book The Singers Talk, Thom Yorke voiced his borderline obsession with the singing voice of John Lennon. Asked what singer he’d most like to talk to about their voice, Yorke replied, “It would be John Lennon.”

“Lennon’s whole attitude to singing, I’m a little bit obsessed with, because, on the surface, he has this whole, raw, doesn’t give a f—k…just the way he sings is weirdly brutal.” Yorke added, “I’d want to talk to him about how he was always so incredibly accurate, but always sounding on the edge of like, he’s gonna miss it, he’s gonna miss it.”

“And, specifically, all these ideas he had in his head about how his voice should be treated. I was like, ‘How do you see it?’ Because what they did with his voice, they had pretty simple tools, but they did really interesting things.” Yorke humorously concluded that he would love to duet with Lennon, but also declared, “It would sound awful though, awful, ugh. It wouldn’t mix well at all.”

Yorke touched on a subject that folks don’t often discuss in the realm of Lennon’s legacy. Most often, people seemingly talk about the man John Lennon, the writer John Lennon, and the cultural figure of John Lennon. Not the singer John Lennon. Like Bob Dylan, John Lennon went through several different vocal styles, and he did so with grace. So much grace that people possibly didn’t even realize that he did so. But Thom Yorke did, and he admires it with a great affinity.

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