Sean Ono Lennon has opened up about John Lennon‘s lasting impact on his mother Yoko Ono, saying that she “never has moved on from that relationship”.
During a new interview on BBC Radio 6 Music, Sean spoke about his father when discussing the special box set release of ‘Mind Games’, the 1973 fourth solo album by the late Beatles musician.
Host Chris Hawkins asked Sean whether he had learned anything new about his parents while putting the collection together. In response, he explained: “Well one thing I noticed was that my mum was on some of the tapes, you could tell she was in the control room.
“So a lot of people said like, ‘Yoko wasn’t around for this record, why are they featuring her in the booklet’ or something. And I think there’s a lot of history, there’s a lot of assumptions made about that time period because they were sort of on their way towards that famous separation that people called The Lost Weekend, right? In LA with May Pang.”
He continued: “But the truth is, even when they were apart they were always talking, so I don’t think they ever really broke up, all his stuff was still in the apartment with my mum, it’s not like they had a real separation. And on top of it, all my dad was thinking about was her.
“You look at the album cover, it’s a collage of my mum literally the size of a mountain, and he’s this little tiny thing sort of fading into the background. And I think it’s clear what his view of my mum was in his life. She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her.
“And she’s there in the studio. So I think that was not something that changed my mind so much but it sort of affirmed how deeply in love he was with my mum.”
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Sean went on to say that he believed that his mother, 91, “never has moved on from that relationship”.
He was then asked whether his new ‘Mind Games’ box set was a “love letter” to his parents. “Yeah,” he replied. “I’ve never put it that way but I would say it’s my best effort to try to be a good son.”
You can listen to the interview in full here.
Sean, who oversaw the production of the ‘Mind Games’ box set, previously reflected on the “legendary love” between his parents. He also called the era during which the original album was made “really terrifying” for both his mother and father.
Sean was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package for the ‘Mind Games’ reissue, for which Sean oversaw new “meditation” mixes.
Last month, Sean revealed that he had begun making music to “fill the void” left by the death of his father.
At the time of the ‘Mind Games’ reissue, Sean spoke about his father’s post-Beatles material. “One thing that distinguishes my dad’s solo career is how personal his lyrics became,” he said.
“It is like a diary, and it is my duty to bring attention to my father’s music. Not just my duty to him, but a duty to the world.”
Sean was five years old when his father was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in 1980.
In other news, The Beatles have earned a Grammy nomination for their 2023 “final song” ‘Now And Then’.
However, John Lennon and George Harrison do not meet Grammy eligibility requirements as they did not contribute newly recorded elements to the track, and are not listed in the official nomination.