Sean Lennon Opens Up About John Lennon's Temper

NY Post:

JOHN Lennon is remembered for his soft-spoken messages of peace and love - but the beloved Beatle had a hair-trigger temper so volatile, nearly anything could set him off. And one night, it exploded in an incident that ended up damaging his son's hearing.

In a jaw-dropping postscript in Philip Norman's new biography, "John Lennon: The Life," out next month, Sean Lennon tells how his father flew off the handle and screamed into his ear as a young boy.

"[He was] teaching me how to cut and eat steak, which was a mystery to me at age 4; how to stick the fork in and cut behind it, and that was how you got a piece in your mouth," writes Sean, 32, whose mom is Yoko Ono. "I think it was that night when he got very upset with me, I think because of something I did very cheekily with the steak. He did wind up yelling at me very, very loudly to the point where he damaged my ear, and I had to go to the hospital."

He says John, mortified by his cruelty, was immediately apologetic: "I remember when I was lying on the floor and hurting, and him holding me and saying, 'I'm so sorry.' He did have a temper."

Read the whole story: NY Post

Comments

[ibivi]

I'm sorry but this is so trivial that it is a non-story. Sean has nothing better to do than tell on his dad?

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

Drugs will do that to you. For me, even Pseudophed will make me jumpy. My cats scatter when that happens.

[ReelBusy]

News flash:
This just in...
John Lennon was ..human.
Back to you Jim....

MCCAIN & PALIN in BEAUTY & the BEAST
Featuring the McCain Economy Chorus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiItoHftv4A

[auramac]

And this was in.. the New York Post? There is nothing in context in that rag even when it IS in context!

[Mort]

John was a complicated person. Talented in some areas, deficient in others. Guess the hype about him being the voice of peace was a little off. That's ok, he's human!

Sean got something else from his dad besides deafness. His voice is quite reminiscent of John's. Too bad his creativity gene came from his mom.

[littlepuffycloud]

Wasn't 'Hey Jude' written for Julian after his parents divorced. The lyrics are so sad and knowing he rarely saw his father afterward makes them more sad.

[sherrzinpa]

Yeah, they didn't see or speak to each other for years. They reunited a few years before he died, during John and Yoko's separation.

[KristaJulieva]

That Albert Goldman biography was the kind where they try and dredge up as many salacious and embarrassing facts as possible without regard to whether they are true. However, it is a very familiar fact to followers of The Beatles and Lennon in particular that he was on the one hand an extremely flawed and pained person, but on the other hand capable of the exact opposite: kindness, the promotion of peace, and of course the creation of beautiful art. Considering his treatment/neglect of his first son Julian, it is not surprising that his relationship with Sean was not as perfect as it is sometimes mythologized--his stay-at-home dad phase, "Beautiful Boy," etc. This dichotomy in his personality is evinced by the fact that he would on the one hand fly into such a rage, but on the other be so quickly and effusively apologetic. It's also clear that Sean has many more positive feelings and memories in regard to his late father than negative ones.

[MrsPeel]

Krista,

You've got it exactly right. This is not news, anyway. Sean has spoken before about his father's violence, toward him and toward Yoko. I can't remember if Cynthia has ever expressed anything similar, but it wouldn't surprise me. There's also the time he and Stu Sutcliffe fought and he kicked Sutcliffe in the head pretty hard.

Lennon talked about his own penchant for violence. To paraphrase, he once said something about himself like, "It's always the violent ones who are going on about peace."

The only thing I'm not sure of is, given Sean's earlier statements, if he has many more positive feelings and memories of John.

It's not heresy to acknowledge that John Lennon was a damaged man and a lousy father. Now that I'm 53, I think, "Wow, I can't believe he was so young when he was killed." Sometimes I still can't believe that he was murdered, and that he's been gone so long. I wonder how much progress he would have made had he lived. Sadly, no one will ever know.

[KristaJulieva]

Yeah, I'm no expert. I've just gotten the general impression when I've read parts of interviews with Sean Lennon in regards to his father over the years that he has little or no lingering resentment towards him. This could either be because he has an overall positive attitude towards his father, or because he's just a forgiving, well-adjusted person regardless of whatever negative experiences he had with him.

[ChrisR]

Lennon kicking Stu in the head is a tale in the Goldman book, which is not a good source at all.
Sutcliffe was certainly beaten up pretty badly in Hamburg and kicked in the head, but not by Lennon. They were BEST of friends. Let's keep the drama and history re-writes to a minimum here, okay?
There are plenty of other reported instances of his violence though, that's for sure. It seemed like only Paul could deal with him.
There's a great story Paul tells of John asking him, after seeing Paul horse around with Julian in such an easy fashion, "how do you do that"? It was a mystery to him. Paul came from a great loving family, and John's upbringing was fairly chilly and he could never relate well to people: everything was a joke or a cruel barb.
All his great songs are totally self-centered (brilliant tho, of course!!), and living alone in the late 70's with Yoko OhNo and his son, without any outside influence, could NOT have been a good thing for such a self-centered creature. So these stories from Sean Lennon are sad to hear, but not surprising.
But as Pete Townshend wrote: "Don't pretend that you know me, cuz I don't even know myself" - certainly Lennon would agree with that, and quite rightly tell me and all of us to shut up. And what an honor that would be!

[happycat]

I guess that this means that no Father of The Year Award will be given posthumously to John Lennon.

[tkondaks]

In Albert Goldman's biography of Lennon, he claimed that Lennon would abuse the family pets and kicked Sean out of frustration (p. 606 of "The Lives of John Lennon").

And on page 554, it is claimed that Lennon kicked Yoko in the belly when she was pregnant with Sean.

What a class act.

[grailknight]

Consider the source. Albert Goldman's biographies of both John Lennon and Elvis Presley were rank hatchet jobs. Don't believe it? Paul McCartney gave Goldman no interviews for the Lennon book, remembering the job Goldman did on Elvis.

[Josie763]

How awful. I never knew Lennon was such a creep. So much for all his "peace and love" in his songs. What a phoney.

[exactor]

Yoko must have thought, that John was just practicing out, his much revered Primal Therapy.
Now, it's Sean's turn to let go of and release his feelings. Glad that's over with and done. Next.

[MrsPeel]

What a complete misunderstanding of Primal Therapy, and John and Yoko's participation in it.

[AurigaRa]

he and Paul were so damaged by losing their mothers.
They were lucky to find Linda and Yoko, who obviously truly cared for them
I hope is somewhere happy - surely he knows of his faults

[pinkyboo]

I guess being a musical genius and a nice person do not go hand in hand.

[QueenOfViolets]

That's an interesting subject. I wonder if Lennon had some degree of borderline autism.

What is a "nice" person? Someone who is able to anticipate the feelings of others and put their own feelings aside, someone who always feel secure and safe enough to carry that off in real time in the midst of a trying situation.

That means you have to have a brain that is good at processing social information, and a brain that is good at altering your behavior and moods to fit the social situation that you perceive, in time to make a difference.

Some people have brains that are NOT GOOD at processing social information and aren't good at seizing control of the circuits to alter their behavior of the person accordingly. They might not recognize their behavior has hurt someone quickly enough to take control of that behavior.

They might also be quick to anger, since to them the world is filled with strange social customs and behaviors they don't automatically understand and sometimes that makes them feel powerless and afraid.

There are a lot of extremely brilliant people I've seen who have this problem. I've realized after many years that it's not really because they CHOOSE to be this way.

On the other hand, if they get in a situation where they are worshiped like gods, then they can lose the motivation to work to get their social skills somewhere close to their intellectual ones.

[rzan1]

John Lennon deserted one son and injiured the other. Julian does not have such fond memories of dad. In fact, he did not see much of dad after his parents were divorced. I do appreciate John's gen.ius and saw the Beatles in concert when I was 15 years old. But John Lennon was far from perfect.

[marymansour]

That was an unnecessary headline and something of a tempest in a teapot. Lennon is an icon.

[Gasparilla]

Lennon is indeed an icon. But he was also a human being, frequently a flawed one. The Beatles have always been my favorite group, for the sheer volume of the numerous great songs that filled the albums. No one had anywhere the number of double sided hits. But I do not think it's a good idea to put people on a pedestal and pretend they don't have their faults. I have heard Julian Lennon express his feelings many times. John basically left him nothing and was cold to him emotionally. My favorite is actually Ringo, who also happened to be a hell of a drummer on those records.

[marymansour]

I was just referring to the blaring headline. Many often, and I am guilty of the same, glom onto the headline and don't get the full context. : )

[MrsPeel]

You're right, Ringo is a great drummer. John and George were my faves, but Ringo is terribly underappreciated.