John Lennon Said He Would ‘Never Forgive’ George Harrison and Paul McCartney for Their Treatment of Yoko Ono
When John Lennon began his relationship with Yoko Ono in 1966, his bandmates weren’t sure what to make of her. George Harrison and Paul McCartney were particularly harsh toward her. While both softened to her as time went on, Lennon had a hard time excusing their early behavior. He said that it was impossible to hold too strong a grudge against them, but he would never forgive his two bandmates.
John Lennon met Yoko Ono in 1966
Lennon met Ono at an art gallery where she had an installation.
“I was looking around the gallery and I saw this ladder and climbed up and got a look in this spyglass on the top of the ladder — you feel like a fool — and it just said, yes,” he told Playboy in 1980. “Now, at the time, all the avant-garde was smash the piano with a hammer and break the sculpture and anti-, anti-, anti-, anti-, anti. It was all boring negative crap, you know. And just that yes made me stay in a gallery full of apples and nails.”
He fell for her when he asked if he could hammer a nail into one of the apples.
“So smarta** says, ‘Well, I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in.’ And that’s when we really met,” Lennon explained. “That’s when we locked eyes and she got it and I got it and, as they say in all the interviews we do, the rest is history.”
After Lennon divorced his first wife, Cynthia, he married Ono in 1969.
John Lennon said he would never forgive his Beatles bandmates for their treatment of Yoko Ono
When Lennon’s bandmates met Ono, they weren’t very welcoming to her. According to Lennon, McCartney admitted to outright hating her at first.
“You can quote Paul, it’s probably in the papers, he said it many times at first he hated Yoko and then he got to like her,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1971. “But, it’s too late for me. I’m for Yoko. Why should she take that kind of s*** from those people?”
When Harrison first met Ono, he told her he’d heard from several people that she had a “lousy name in New York,” and that she gave off “bad vibes.”
“That’s what George said to her! And we both sat through it,” Lennon said. “I didn’t hit him, I don’t know why.”
While he said that Ringo Starr and his wife were welcoming enough, he had a hard time forgiving the others’ behavior.
“Ringo was all right, so was Maureen, but the other two really gave it to us,” Lennon said. “I’ll never forgive them, I don’t care what f***in’ s*** about Hare Krishna and God and Paul with his ‘Well, I’ve changed me mind.’ I can’t forgive ’em for that, really. Although I can’t help still loving them either.”
Their opinions of Lennon’s wife softened over the years
Over the years, both Harrison and McCartney warmed to Ono. Harrison wanted to let go of the grudge he was holding against her. McCartney said he realized Lennon loved her, and tried to push his negative feelings aside. Since then, he’s said, he and Ono have become friends.
She shared that she was grateful for his comments but noted that she never found McCartney’s disapproval too upsetting.
“I never felt too bad about Paul,” she said, per IndyStar. “He was my husband’s partner and they did a great job and all that. They seemed to have a lot of fun, and I respected that.”
