Despite his last name, John Lennonthe son of Julian Lennon wants to make it clear that he rarely has inside information The Beatles.
“I’m not part of the inner circle – I never have been,” said 61-year-old Julian in an interview with The Guardian Posted on Sunday, January 5th. “You have to understand that when Dad left, when I was between 3 and 5, it was just Mum and I and we had nothing to do with the Beatles or Dad.”
When the new Beatles documentaries and projects are releasedJulian says: “Half the time it’s news to me.”
“I visited him on a strange occasion,” Julian continued of his father. “But we were out a lot.”
Julian Lennon. Matt Winkelmeier/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
(Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney) As his bandmate Paul McCartney would later point out, John Lennon’s short Beatles life was full of tragedy. Growing up in a turbulent family dynamic, after his father Alfred passed away at a young age and his mother Julia left his sister Mary “Mimi” Smith to raise him, John’s family life (…)
John and his first wife Cynthia Lennon were married from 1962 to 1968. During their relationship, the couple welcomed Julian, who became a singer, author and photographer.
John later married Yoko Ono and welcomed Sean Ono Lennon in 1975. The Beatles member died five years later at the age of 40.
“I’m thankful Sean and I get on like a house on fire – we’re best friends and he tells me what he can, but things are pretty secretive on the Beatles front,” Julian shared in his latest interview. “(It feels) extremely strange, but I’m not upset about it. I prefer to be excited and impressed by what they have done and continue to do.”
In recent years The Beatles have been the subject of various documentaries including Martin Scorseseis The Beatles ’64which premiered in November 2024.
Although he may not have been close with his father, Julian still has an interest in what John and his group mates have achieved.
“As a fan, I’m just as curious as anyone,” he said. “Although I find myself saying, ‘How could there be another Beatles movie?’
Although Julian has found success as a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, he is now turning his focus to fine art photography with a new book titled The fragile moments in life.
After 55 years, Julian Lennon has made peace with ‘Hey Jude’. Julian, 60, recently spoke about the song Paul McCartney wrote to comfort him while his parents John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon (née Powell) went through a divorce. “It was originally ‘Hey Jules,’ but that didn’t feel right rhythmically,” Julian told Esquire (…)
The work spans more than 20 years of work and includes photographs taken while traveling the world for his charity, White Feather Foundation..
When asked where he got his positivity and optimism from, Julian credited his mother for how she handled life’s ups and downs.
“Seeing how she dealt with what she dealt with with love and grace and positivity,” he explained. “I saw that this was the only way forward. You take the high road, become the better person, and try to learn from all the crap that’s thrown your way. No doubt I’ve had moments of depression and I still deal with very serious anxiety at times, but the only way is to fight through it. Raining is not good – been there, done that.
