Julian Lennon Gets Candid About His Late Father, The Beatles’ John Lennon

on Larry King now grammy-nominated musician Julian Lennon opening up about his late father the iconic John Lennon there was a great deal of anger there but there's also you know I've grown up a lot and there's there's been forgiveness since though [Music] welcome to Larry King now our special guest is Julian Lennon the musician filmmaker photographer humanitarian the son of the music icon and Beatles legend John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia Lennon his debut album the loked was a pronouncement blocked launched him onto the scene almost 30 years ago Julianne's now back with his first studio album in 15 years called everything changes does it does everything he does is it safe to say that you were born to be a musician he got the right gmail ID to be honest with you I don't really know because my I actually fell in love with acting in school and I was offered a scholarship to the Shakespeare Company but I picked up a guitar and and and kind of the rest is history yes I mean I so what's why 15 years between the the earlier work and now the new one well you know I've never had the easiest relationship I think with the music industry the business or the media on many many levels it's it's just been a tough road I've been bashed a lot you know cause of your name yeah yeah it's it's it's it's been I think a lot harder than easier than people might think you know the when when people don't take you personally seriously as an artist but just only want to know you because of your father blame you because your name know you because of your father and that's it and that's a tough one to ride I mean I was I was thinking about you know the fact that every time I went to a new school you know I was introduced by the headmaster of the school that the first day of assembly that here's John Lennon's kid and so to even begin to try and make real friends at that stage was it was a tough thing to understand it though why the guy had to say that I don't think he did have to say that I mean there were that you know there were many other kids that came from very very wealthy families that weren't necessarily in the limelight exactly there in the rub you work though with legendary Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler you learn from him he's on the new yes he's on the on the the lead track of the album the first thing they'd like to work with he's great he's you have to catch him when he can he's he's he works a lot himself I mean at the time that we were doing that he was on Idol he was also recording the new album of theirs he was also rehearsing for a live tour so he was on the go so to actually trap him for two hours to actually write a song was was was a bit tough we talked about photography and doing it but is that what you've been doing mostly in this 15 year interim or have you been concerting oh no no III got out of the business entirely I love music I yeah because of the relationship I have with the business and I I just I feel let down a lot and I feel that I do work my hiny off as much as the next man if not more my office never closes as far as I'm concerned and that and that just means that I'm you know I'm always working on projects one way or another whether Venice is clip in a minute or month so what brought you back why now because I just think that you know music lives within and I I love the the the process of finding a song that that relates to people that that I get goosebumps you know for me writing a song all three elements of the song there the music the lyrics and the melody all have to have the same intent all have to have the same emotion for it to be a marriage and for me to get goosebumps oh you missed it so I kind of missed it yes you also did tell me about photography how'd you let under that well I was it was actually to try and keep it short I was doing a campaign for lupus because a friend of mine Lucy who was the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds she passed away and so I was awful awful and I've become an ambassador for Foundation of America in the meantime but we were working on a campaign and we were using Timothy white who's an incredible photographer and he sent me some photographs and I edited them and sent them back and he said let me see your work and I showed him the work and he said you should do something with this and I said he said I said listen if you're serious about this then you know if you support me in this and you help me put an exhibition together then that's let's go for it so you've Debu photography exhibits at the Morrison Hotel galleries in New York City yeah that's where I first started the allowed to shoot I landscapes of my favorite but I do like a lot of flying the wolf stuff I've been doing a lot of that recently most exhibitors I think capturing the moment well and the emotion of whatever that is in the eye yeah I actually love the editing process after as well oh you do all that yeah yeah I mean that's that I I would call myself probably more a visual artist than a photographer to be honest we want to do cinematography I don't know if I'd get into that or not I you know maybe that's further down the road well one step at a time the new album is everything changes the guest is Julian Lennon is everything changes by the way one of the songs in the album that's the the lead zone there's a front the first song on the track yet on the album side so this thing you had the hearing your father's name all the time did you wind up having the kind of dislike for him I don't need to be personal one my father died yeah my father died I was only nine and a half sure I was angry at him sure I didn't understand bail yeah I took it was leaving me there was a great deal of anger there but there's also you know I've grown up a lot and there's there's been forgiveness since then but it was it was tough yeah it was very tough growing up that's for sure what is it did he have an influence on your music oh absolutely no question about that I mean I I mean as you know as much as Steely Dan as much Keith Jarrett's as much as many other artists but certainly I think the Beatles were at the forefront of all of that I mean anybody that wanted to be a songwriter excuse me of any kind would look to them for how they constructed a song can you explain musically what they had what did they do and other groups didn't do that's a tough one they pulled things out of the ether that nobody else did I think it was more about exploration they were willing to challenge themselves and challenge songwriting and challenge music in a in a way that probably not many other artists had done or did do at that time maybe apart from the Beach Boys you know the great conductor Arthur Fiedler told me that Beatles symphonic ly yes will live forever oh it's more changes their music they were revolutionary I I heard there was even someone who took dad's solo music on the road and orchestrated it well and they just sang with the full orchestra and one song in particular Julia which was Beth my grandmother goosebumps absolute goose but in fact it affected me more that way than actual and a sort of pop rock sense how are you only past seventeen where were you I was I was actually I was actually in my bed which was New York no no no I I never I never lived in New York in that new idiom oh yeah I was with my mother in North Wales she was actually with Maureen Starkey Ringo's ex-wife in London who was a dear best friend and I was actually in North Wales at the time and literally I I heard a noise and it was the the chimney fell in and I you know when he just have that gut feeling that something's wrong something's really wrong yeah and I went downstairs and all the curtains were closed and I thought this is just too bizarre I but who knew what it was at the time and then open the curtain press outside everywhere and my stepfather been told not to tell me until mum you know right but I just said you what's going on you got to tell me and my first concern at that point was to make sure that mum was okay more than anything you know really yeah absolutely because she still you know absolutely I mean that was the first love of her life so you know she'd known him much longer than I'd ever known him and was much more closer than I had ever been so it was all about looking after her and it has been ever since do you keep in touch with the players the McCartney's the Yoko Ono's the ring those every once in a while every once in a while we bump into each other and say hello you know so so living with this legacy yeah do you think the end result is you benefited from the name hindered by the name or it's a wash Wow I wouldn't say I benefited it in in the public sense but I would say it's made me probably made me the man I am today along with the fact that I want to make my mother proud more than anything else that is number one it's very nice do you play all the time you're writing all the time no I very much consider myself a song Smiths rather than a player I mean I'm one of those people that if I write and sing and do a project once I'm done I'm done I can't I literally if I have to go on the road again I have to go and relearn all of the songs all of the chords it's it's just one of those things I always want to progress I always just want to move on it's been a great pleasure learned a lot I really thank you for coming my pleasure my pleasure too everything changes that's my guest Union and you can buy the new album everything changes exclusively on iTunes

Channel: Larry King

Views: 1,684,576

Rating: 4.864748 out of 5

Keywords: john lennon, julian lennon, lennon, the beatles, julian lennon interview, julian lennon john lennon, john lennon son, sean lennon, john lennon death, julian lennon on his father's death, julian lennon love the earth, julian, cynthia lennon, julian lennon's reaction to his father's death, john lennon the beatles, john lennon and his children, john lennon and his son, best of john lennon, john lennon greatest hits, john lennon live, john lennon songs, best songs john lennon, yoko

Id: Zj_tnx6DTzM

Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/kenman278]

I really can’t imagine what it would be like to be so saddled with such a legacy, and yet have such a distance from the very person who gave you the name. He has come out pretty level headed considering.

[u/screamqueenjunkie]

Julian is such a boss. So much respect.