John Lennon’s Son Said People Made ‘Too Big a Deal’ out of the Feud Between His Dad and Paul McCartney
After The Beatles broke up, the band’s former members feuded through song lyrics and interviews, but John Lennon’s son said the arguments were blown out of proportion. Lennon and Paul McCartney, who wrote many of the group’s songs together, had many arguments in the time after the group broke up. While the fighting between them was painful, Sean said it could have been worse.
The former Beatles publicly feuded after the band broke up
Lennon grew increasingly frustrated with his bandmates because of the way they treated Yoko Ono.
“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?”
He explained that he couldn’t forgive McCartney or George Harrison for their 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.”
John Lennon’s son said people blew the feud out of proportion
After The Beatles broke up, McCartney avoided playing songs he wrote with Lennon in concert. He poked at Lennon in the song “Too Many People,” and Lennon hit back with the much harsher “How Do You Sleep?”
“The only thing you done was yesterday,” Lennon sang. “The sound you make is Muzak to my ears.”
McCartney explained that he wanted to keep things from escalating with Lennon, and the two spoke and spent time together by the mid-1970s. Still, the memory of the feud continued to characterize their relationship. Lennon’s son Sean believed people blew the argument between the former bandmates out of proportion.
“Those were crabby moments, but people made too big a deal of it,” he told The New Yorker. “It didn’t reach the level of Tupac telling Biggie Smalls that he’d slept with his wife” in “Hit ‘Em Up.”
John Lennon’s son said that he is close with Paul McCartney now
Neither Sean Lennon nor his mother, Ono, hold any ill will toward McCartney. Sean said that he thinks of McCartney as a hero.
“Time has sort of made us all grow to soften our edges and appreciate each other much more,” he said. “Paul is a hero to me, on the same shelf as my dad. My mom loves Paul, too, she really appreciates him. They’ve had tensions in the past, and no one is trying to deny it. But all the tension we ever had, hyperbolized or not, makes it a real story about real human beings.”
Lennon’s elder son, Julian, said that he has also remained close to McCartney over the years. They send each other letters for holidays and birthdays.
