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Issue date: May 30, 1999
In this article:
 His first album in 7 years: Photograph Smile
Julian on forgiving his father
"I can't forgive him for not understanding, from age 30 to 40, that love is so necessary for a child." |
Julian Lennon on his dad - and his first disc in seven years
 ometimes, across a crowded restaurant, people spot Julian Lennon eating dinner. They don't approach him. Instead, they go to the jukebox. "They put Beatles music on," he says, "to see if I'll flinch."
To most people, Lennon will always be "the son of." That's why, on his first album in seven years,
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Photograph Smile, he has made a liberating statement. Yes, he looks like John Lennon, and on one track does a startling imitation of him. But Julian, 36, has dedicated his album to the man who really raised and nurtured him, his late stepfather, Roberto Bassanini. "He was the one who took me to school every day. He was the guy."
As for John Lennon: "The only thing he taught me was how not to be a father."
When Julian first hit the music charts, in 1984, he was 21 and his father had been dead just four years. "Julian was still grappling with it," says Gary Graff, a rock music author. "He was expressing remorse, not anger."
But now, anger is helping Julian come to terms with his lineage. His father and mother, Cynthia, split when he was 5. He saw his dad another dozen times or so. "He walked out the bloody door and was never around. ... I'd admire him on TV - listen to his words and opinions. But for someone who was praised for peace and love and wasn't able to keep that at home, that's hypocrisy."
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Julian became a self-taught musician. His father never gave him a music lesson. "We sat down once and maybe he played five chords. That was that." Does he wish he'd asked more from his dad? "Yes and no. Why should I have put the effort into bringing him home? It was his responsibility. It wasn't mine to baby-sit the father." Does he forgive him? "To a certain degree, because he was just 23 when I was born, and there was the Beatles whirlwind. But I can't forgive him for not understanding, from age 30 to 40, that love is so necessary for a child."
Though he "dearly loves" his 23-year-old half brother, Sean, Julian remains bitter toward stepmother Yoko Ono. "In Yoko's mind, the only important Lennon family is Yoko and Sean. ... But he and I are blood, and the only thing Yoko will never have is the Lennon blood and talent. She has everything else."
Blood. Talent. Julian has slowly learned to view these as gifts. And by coming to terms with his father's failures, he's felt a freedom to explore the legacies that live within him. "He spent many years trying to sound like anyone but John Lennon," says Graff. "Now he's at peace sounding like his father, and it's a much more genuine musical statement."
Back when John and Cynthia divorced, Paul McCartney wrote Hey Jude to help Julian through the pain. All his life, Julian heard the song, knew it was a message to him, but couldn't quite interpret it. And now? "I feel I've taken a sad song and made it better. I truly do."
By Contributing Editor Jeffrey Zaslow, an advice columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times Co.
PHOTO BY KEVIN KNIGHT for USA WEEKEND
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