John Lennon Was ‘Embarrassed’ to Return to Liverpool Because The Beatles Had ‘Sold Out’
John Lennon, like the rest of The Beatles, grew up in Liverpool, England. He got his start playing shows throughout the city, and he lived there with his family until The Beatles found widespread success. The band was incredibly successful, and whenever The Beatles returned, they were treated as hometown heroes. Lennon found this embarrassing and did not like going home.
John Lennon grew up in Liverpool
Lennon was born in Liverpool in 1940. While he initially lived with his mother, Julia, and his father, Alfred, his parents separated when he was a toddler. His aunt, Mimi Smith, took custody of Lennon after reporting Julia to Social Services. According to Paul McCartney, Lennon’s life with Smith was posh.
“He was in Menlove Avenue and I was off an avenue called Madison Avenue,” McCartney told Lennon’s son Sean on BBC Radio 2 (via Express). “Compared to the rest of us in The Beatles, he was the posh one.”
These days, the home Lennon lived in with Smith is a stop on the National Trust’s tour of The Beatles’ childhood homes.
John Lennon was embarrassed to return to Liverpool
After playing shows at local Liverpool venues and residencies in Hamburg, Germany, The Beatles found mainstream success. They embarked on national tours, and whenever they had a break, they would return home to Liverpool. According to Ringo Starr, they used these homecoming visits as an opportunity to gloat.
“We went around boasting,” Starr said in the book The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “Professional group, you know. Most groups were still going out to ordinary jobs.”
Lennon didn’t have the same experience. He admitted that he was embarrassed to be seen as a sellout.
“We couldn’t say it, but we didn’t really like going back to Liverpool,” he said. “Being local heroes made us nervous. When we did shows there they were always full of people we knew. We felt embarrassed in our suits and being very clean. We were worried that friends might think we’d sold out. Which we had, in a way.”
He was reportedly planning a trip home shortly before his death
After moving to New York with Yoko Ono, Lennon went a decade without returning to his hometown. He dealt with immigration issues and worried that if he left the United States, he wouldn’t be able to return. According to his half-sister Julia Baird, he had been planning a trip home shortly before his death, though.
“The last time I spoke to him, actually, was on Nov. 17, just before he died,” Baird said on the Beatles City podcast. “John had talked of coming home to Merseyside and was even planning a reunion in Rock Ferry at Ardmore, a large house that had been in the family for many years.”
Tragically, Lennon was murdered before he could make the trip back home. In 2001, his hometown honored him by renaming the city’s international airport the Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
