In a recent interview with the BBC, Sean Lennon said he gained new insights into his parent’s private relationship while assembling materials for the new Mind Games box set.
“The truth is, even when they were apart, they were always talking, so I don’t think they ever really broke up,” he said, referring to his father’s “Lost Weekend” period where he separated from his mother for 18 months, “all his stuff was still in the apartment with my mum, it’s not like they had a real separation. And on top of it, all my dad was thinking about was her.”
“You look at the album cover [of Mind Games],” he continues, “it’s a collage of my mum literally the size of a mountain, and he’s this little tiny thing sort of fading into the background. And I think it’s clear what his view of my mum was in his life. She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her.”
Ono was right by her husband’s side when a deranged fan murdered him outside of their New York apartment building in 1980. She never remarried and dedicated her life to honoring and preserving his legacy. In the new BBC interview, Sean Lennon says that his mother “never moved on from that relationship.”
Sean Lennon has taken on a much larger role in overseeing the John Lennon estate now that Yoko is 91 years old and facing significant health challenges. She has rarely been seen in public over the past several years. In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone commemorating what would have been his father’s 80th birthday, Sean Lennon discussed the obligation he feels to keep the legacy alive.
“We’re living in an age where enough time has passed,” he said. “No one bothers to make sure that the younger generations have an opportunity to be exposed to it. I just always assumed the Beatles and John Lennon — no one is going to forget those stories. I don’t think my dad would have been satisfied with just being somebody that you have to discover through your own research.”
The younger Lennon has also maintained his own music career since the release of his 1998 debut LP Into The Sun. Last summer, he played guitar in Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog tour, and joined them every night for a complete performance of Pink Floyd’s Animals alongside keyboard Harry Waters, son of Roger Waters. After taking a long break from solo albums, Sean Lennon released Asterisms earlier this year.