Probably everyone in this world knows the name John Lennon. It’s linked to images of young men with mushroom heads and screaming women, to songs written to last. John Lennon was one of the Beatles, a legend. John Lennon, that’s also the name of the late musician’s son. Was the name. Because John Lennon is now called Julian Lennon. He has now told the podcast “Word In Your Ear” why the singer-songwriter no longer wanted to be called by his father’s name.
He had to be almost 60 years old to finally free himself from the burden of a big name. Julian Lennon, now 59, created facts in 2020 and officially changed his name. John Charles Julian Lennon, John Lennon for short, became Julian Charles John Lennon. A decision that opened up a whole different world for him. “Just before we were all locked in a cage, I finally decided to legally change my name,” the musician said. The reason was “the crap I had to deal with when I was traveling, with security companies and this and that and others”.
Situations in which only a first name is used when he had to introduce himself as John Lennon had become increasingly uncomfortable for him. “Because there was always a clever saying or joke, and most of the time people didn’t even recognize me,” he says. In any case, he always used the nickname Julian and was known as this. The name John, on the other hand, never felt like his. So after living most of his life with the burden of bearing his oversized father’s name, he decided to finally make space for himself. He knew: “Yes, I want to be me now. That’s it, it’s time for a change.”
The decision to change the name is by no means to be understood as a departure from his father. In the conversation, the musician emphasized that he will continue to respect the legacy and wishes of his parents, whose mother is Cynthia Powell. “Not that I’m ashamed or disrespectful. I had to be myself,” he explained. “I finally needed to be heard as Julian. That’s what Julian is doing, not ‘John’s son’ so that was part of the journey and… it just made sense to me.”
Now, of all times, that he has emancipated himself from his famous father, at least in name, he is looking for musical closeness. It wasn’t until April that Julian Lennon dared to perform a song by John Lennon for the first time. At a benefit concert for Ukraine he sang the world hit “Imagine”. “I always said I would only sing ‘Imagine’ if it was ‘the end of the world,'” he wrote in the clip’s YouTube description. The musician’s new album “Jude” is also closely linked to his father’s work. Paul McCartney once wrote the song “Hey Jude” about him. Lennon told Rolling Stone, “I think I’ve honored the song and I think I’ve honored where I come from, my legacy, sort of, my heritage.”
Quelle: Word In Your Ear, People, Rolling Stone
