Sean Ono Lennon: “Yoko hasn’t gotten over her relationship with John”

Sean Ono Lennon (60 next October) spoke about J.’s lasting impactoh Lennon about his mother Yoko Onostating that she “never got over that relationship.”

During a new interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, Sean remembered his father on the occasion of the release of the special box set of “Mind Games“, the fourth solo album from 1973 by the late Beatles musician. Already in 2002 a reissue of the album was published by Yoko Ono with three previously unreleased demo versions.

BBC host Chris Hawkins asked Sean if he had discovered anything new about his parents while putting together the collection. “Well – replied John’s youngest son – one thing I noticed was that my mother was present in some of the tapes, obviously she was in the control room.”

“A lot of people said, ‘Yoko wasn’t on this record, why did they put her in the booklet’? or something like that. And I think there’s a lot of narrative, a lot of assumptions about that period, because they were going towards that famous split known as “The Lost Weekend”, right?

In September 1973 John Lennon abandoned Yoko for 18 months and moved to California with their assistant May Pang. “Mind Games” was released in October 1973. In 1975 the two returned to live together and on 9 October of the same year Sean was born, the couple’s firstborn and second child, after Julian, for John and also for Ono (Kyoko Chan Cox was born from first marriage of the Japanese artist).

Sean Ono Lennon continued: “But the truth is that even when they were apart they were always talking, so I don’t think they ever really broke up, all his things were still in the flat with my mother, it’s not like they had a real break up. own separation. And what’s more – says the son – my father only thought about her.”

“If you look at the album cover, there’s a portrait of my mother literally as big as a mountain, and he’s this tiny thing fading into the background. And I think it’s clear what his vision of my mother was in her She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her. “And she’s there in the studio. So I guess it didn’t change my mind, but it affirmed how deeply in love he was with my mother.” John and Yoko’s son then added that he believes his mother, now 91, “never got over that relationship.”

He was then asked if his new box set “Mind Games” was a “love letter” to his parents. “Yes,” 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.”

Sean, who oversaw the production of the new “Mind Games” box set, has previously spoken of the “legendary love” between his parents. He also called the era in which the original album was made “really terrifying” for both his mother and father.

Sean was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Limited Edition Box Set or Special Package for the reissue of “Mind Games,” for which Sean curated new “meditation” mixes (Read here).

Last month Sean revealed he started making music to “fill the void” left by his father’s death. At the time of the “Mind Games” reissue, Sean talked about the his father’s post-Beatles material. “One thing that distinguishes my father’s solo career is how personal his lyrics became,” he said. “It’s like a diary, and it’s my duty to bring attention to my father’s music. It’s not just a duty to him, but a duty to the world.” Sean was five years old when John Lennon was killed by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980 in New York.