He was the father who let him down badly; who betrayed him and pushed him into despair. But time is a healer as Julian Lennon now accepts. “If Dad was to walk through the door now, we’d hug and cry, and get rid of all that pent-up emotion and anger. I have nothing but love for him now.”

 

Julian has one of the most famous fathers in the world, but his relationship with him was for so long that of the scorned and rebuffed son.

 

A decade ago Julian would criticise his father at any opportunity with remarks making it clear he thought he was a hypocrite. He was quoted as saying: “Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world, but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant most to him - his first wife that is my mother Cynthia, and her son, me.”

 

Today, living what he describes as the life of “a reasonably happy camper” in northern Italy, Julian realises how that hatred was largely influenced by a bad relationship with Yoko Ono. He believed she had taken over John Lennon - stolen him from both Cynthia and himself.

 

Though his relationship with Yoko Ono cannot be described a great or particularly friendly, it is, as Julian puts it “okay” now. Julian was left nothing in the will by his father, who was brutally murdered on the streets of New York in December 1980. It then took years for Julian and Yoko Ono to sort out a private agreement for some share of the Lennon estate. Resolving that cleary helped improve Julian’s bank balance and state of mind.

 

This Tuesday, Julian and his mother, who lives in Majorca, but who has been staying with her son for the past 11 days, will open an exhibition of John Lennon memorabalia at The Beatles Story in Liverpool. For both of them, it will obviously be a very moving and poignant trip. Both, though notably Julian, have been deeply involved in arranging the exhibition which will include more than 30 items owned by them. They include Paul McCartney’s hand-written recording notes for Hey Jude; one of John’s guitars; his Afghan coat; his cape from the film Help!, and many letters and postcards which John wrote to both Cynthia and Julian.

 

The Hey Jude recording notes have a very particular significence for Julian. McCartney wrote Hey Jude initially as Hey Jules in 1968 for the then five year old Julian to console the youngster and his mother after the divorce from John. McCartney changed the word Jules to Jude as it fitted in better with the other lyrics.

 

“It was so thoughtful of Paul to write the song and I’ll always be grateful,” says Lennon. But he had to buy the recording notes at an auction in the same way that he had to purchase so many other items which once either belonged to his father or were in some way connected to him. Hey Jude was credited to both McCartney and Lennon, as so often happened with many of their songs even if, frankly, the words and music were really composed by one or other of the duo.

 

Over the past two decades Julian has himself bought John Lennon memorabilia, much of it to be displayed in the exhibition in Liverpool, which will run until the end of the year. It has been, as he accepts, his way of “re-connecting” with his father. Yet he has had to spend more than £1m of his own money to gain possession.

 

“It is, in a way, horrendous and very sad that this is what I have needed to do. Yet I’m blessed too that I have had the money to be able to do this.”

 

Julian has not himself been to auctions to buy. “I would look at catalogues, work out what I could afford and then send somebody to bid on my behalf. My office and certain friends would alert me. I would never go past any point which I thought was truly unreasonable. I then just kept my fingers crossed and hoped for the best. Some items though I missed and I’ve been outbid several times.”

 

The ‘misses’ include the original hand-written Hey Jude lyrics (as distinct from McCartney’s recording notes) and his father’s white piano, which was in their home in Ascot. “I think George Michael owns that now,” says Lennon.

 

Julian’s personal favourites, which he has purchased, include the Afghan coat and some postcards. “These are cards which Dad sent to me or Mum after the divorce from when I was about five to 13. They are often just little notes such as travel arrangements for me. But they mean a lot.”

 

Talking to Julian in his first interview for eight years, it is clear that his father does now mean a lot to him. Maybe it is simply because his now middle aged at 45. “Gosh, I suppose I am middle-aged, but I’d never thought of that.”

 

Of course it crossed my own mind that Julian is only saying nice things about his father because of this new exhibition. But I think it really is because he has simply matured, had time to reflect and, in the words of his father, is giving peace a chance.

 

Julian ‘lost’ his father when he was five at the time of the divorce though he did get back on reasonable terms with him in the mid 1970s when John split from Yoko Ono for a couple of years after meeting May Pang. It was she who encouraged a rapprochment. “Dad and I got on a great deal better than,” recalls Julian. “We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang.” This relationship was intitially known as ‘the lost weekend’ though it lasted a good deal longer - 18 months in fact - before John and Yoko Ono were reconciled in 1975.

 

“My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear - they were the happiest time I can remember with them.”

 

Then of course Julian really lost his Dad when he was gunned down in 1980. But Julian, again with the passage of time, puts that into context.

 

“But Dad lost his own mother - initially when she left him when he was five too, and then when she was killed in a car accident when Dad was 17.”

 

It was a terrible irony that Julia Lennon was on her way to see the teenage John at his aunt Mimi’s home in Woolton, a middle class suburb of Liverpool, when she was knocked down by an off-duty police officer in his car and was killed barely 100 yards away from the house. The death of his mother as a teenager was something which united John with McCartney, whose own mother died of cancer when he too was in his teens.

 

“Only now can I really appreciate what the loss of his own mother must have meant to Dad,” says Julian. “It made him angry, bitter and pent up. He became an angry young man. And that’s just what happened to me. We were so alike in that respect. He locked up all that anger about his mother leaving him and then her death for so many years.”

 

Julian now admits that he too was “short-tempered, snide and bitterly angry” himself for years - an emotional state not helped by drink and drug abuse, and some resentment that his own musical career was so often being compared - often unfavourably - with his father’s.

 

“I’m now clean of drugs. That’s gone. I even quit smoking a couple of years ago though it was not the best of timing since it occcured just as I was splitting up with my partner. Nowadays I just have the occasional drink. I am, in effect, the polar opposite of what I once was. I live on salads for much of the time and regularly exercise.”

 

Today Lennon has no girl-friend and, in middle-age, no children - something which does sadden him. In fact, when I asked what he might do with the John Lennon memorabilia, he says that “it might go to my children ... if I have any.”

 

If not, says Lennon, he will ensure they can be on display. “So either for my kids, if I have them, or to be available for the fans.”

 

The fans, who are expected to flock to The Beatles Story from later this week, will, Julian hopes, also be able to buy a specially prepared album book of some of the exhibits as a souvenir. These will include photos of some of the memorabilia and copies of some of the postcards and letters, including one from John to Cynthia admitting that he had treated her “like a bast*rd”.

 

“Yes, Mum and I were treated with disrespect,” he says. “But what Mum and I want this exhibition to get over is an insight into Dad. What you will see are stages in his life and career. The changes from that enthusiastic, if angry teenager, to how the fans ‘killed’ him. It shows how his own emotions changed with the success of his career. You can see this in the sequence of letters, postcards and photos. The exhibition is about Mum, Dad and me.”

 

Julian has always got on exceptionally well with his mother, who has had many of her personal trials and tribulations since she split from John in 1967. She has been married several times and has had some other partners. “She’s fine now,” says Julian, who either goes to stay with his mother two or three times year in Majorca or she comes to him, as she is now, before they set off for Liverpool.

 

I asked Julian if he would on the Merseyside visit go to Mendips, the house, now owned by the National Trust and open to the public, where his father spent most of his youth. In fact it was the home where John Lennon lived for more years than any other. It has been preserved almost in aspic - the house owned by Auntie Mimi where John dreamt his dreams and composed quite a few of his early songs, some of them with McCartney, who would walk the mile from his own council home to Menlove Avenue.

 

Upstairs is John’s old bedroom. The single bed is still there and on the wall a poster picture of Brigit Bardot, a pin-up of the teenage Lennon.

 

Julian has never visited the house, a typical 1930s built suburban home. I was surprised. “Well, to be honest it was not part of my own life. Mum and Dad had moved down south soon after I was born. I suppose I might some day go there but it does not mean that much to me.”

 

It was Yoko Ono who bought the home six years ago at auction and then gave it to the National Trust. That is not however the reason why Julian has not been there.

 

His relationship with his step-mother is well documented. There has not been a lot of love lost on either side. But now, again with the passing of time, Julian and Yoko Ono are on better terms. He saw her earlier this year in New York for dinner while she was recording her latest album. “But it was no more than a brief dinner with her and Sean.” Sean, of course, is his half-brother, and, like Julian, has carved out a musical career. “The fault with Yoko is as much mine. I unleashed Hell on her. Now I’ve made my peace with her and put the past on the backburner. We talked over things at that dinner. There is no point in further animosity as I’ve had enought of anger. It is a waste of time and energy.”

 

Julian makes it very clear though that his relationship with Sean could not be better even if he was clearly John’s favourite while he was alive. “We’ve got a fabulous friendship. The issue was never with him; it was with Yoko.”

 

Two years ago, Julian, hearing that Sean was touring Croatia with his band, went there to see him. “I stood behind the stage and waited. When he came off initially he thought I was some Croatian security guy. We then chatted away and then he told me that he had a spare bunk in the touring van, and invited me to carry on with them. We went to some other east European countries and to Germany.”

 

The two also saw eachother in May this year where Sean was playing with his group at a party at the Cannes film festival. “We always get on well.” Yes, even though they are seen by some as rivals with their own and very different musical careers.

 

When I asked what Julian thinks about hearing his father’s own songs these days, he says he simply takes it in his stride. “I might think to myself ‘there he is again’. But when I heard it 20 years ago, I would think ‘oh, No, not him again’.”

 

Julian goes so far as to say that many younger people hearing his concerts or buying his albums do not realise he is John’s son. “Surprising though it might seem, some don’t know about John or the Beatles. They only know of Dad through me.”

 

Julian enjoyed initial and immediate success with his debut album Valotte in 1984 when it got into the Top 20 chart and then spawned a single Too Late For Goodbyes. But his last big hit was Saltwater, back in 1991.

 

For the past year he has been working on a new album, Everything Changes, which is planned for release early next year. “It’s about life and how it can change from bad to good.” For Julian Lennon himself, its title seems very apposite. His own life has been a long and winding but at times very rough road. “But now I can say I’m happy to wake up every morning.”

 

Source: Sunday Times

I read something similar about a year ago regarding how he and Yoko now get on; and how he and Sean are good friends.

 

Ironically my favourite Julian Lennon song was when he definitely did not sound like his Dad. Instead he sounded like aNnother major British icon whom collaborated with his John in 1975.

 

Julian Lennon - Now You're In Heaven (1989)

Would it be David Bowie by chance?

Would it be David Bowie by chance?

 

It certainly is they collaborated on "Fame" and "Across The Universe" for Bowie's Young Americans album.

 

As well as Across The Universe, David Bowie has also covered John's Imagine, Working Class Hero and this rarely heard recording from his non released Toy album.

 

With a track produced by Tony Visconti.

 

David Bowie - Mother

It certainly is they collaborated on "Fame" and "Across The Universe" for Bowie's Young Americans album.

 

As well as Across The Universe, David Bowie has also covered John's Imagine, Working Class Hero and this rarely heard recording from his non released Toy album.

 

With a track produced by Tony Visconti.

 

David Bowie - Mother

 

I have Young Americans, didn't know about an unrealeased album though. I have almost all his albums from the 70's and 80's and 90's just a few gaps.