When your name is Julian Lennon, there’s no way around being thought of as someone’s son.
Julian did follow John’s footsteps right into the world of rock music, doing so with a sometimes eerily similar voice as the first “next generation” rock star among many to come. But Julian had his own path to follow and his own song to sing. His work in music, photography and philanthropy would not require the use of the word “Beatles” and neither would it require live performances of his father’s music.
Julian Lennon has been living a mission-driven creative life for all of his 59 years, but, yes, the world does still see him as someone’s son. With his new album, the first in 11 years, Julian advances his body of work that has always simultaneously explored personal and global themes, but for the first time in his life, he’s embracing his inner status as someone’s son: He named the new album Jude.
“Calling it Jude was very coming of age for me in that regard, because it was very much facing up to who I am,” Julian Lennon told Goldmine. “I’ve been trying to figure out all my life who I am and what I do and that I’m not just someone’s son. It’s been a tough one, when you personally have moved on from all of that, but the world still considers you that.”
And “that” is the little boy who came home from school with a painting of his classmate Lucy in the sky with diamonds, the little boy for whom The Beatles’ lullaby “Good Night” had been written, the little boy whose parents were divorcing so his father’s musical partner wrote a song directed at him called “Hey Jude.”
My natural conversational greeting in life is “hey,” a colloquialism that I acquired from my South Georgia relatives, but I made it a point to not say “Hey Julian” at the beginning of my Zoom meeting with Julian Lennon. I didn’t want him thinking it was a clever affectation or that my interest in interviewing him was about his status as someone’s son.
I wanted to talk about, the introspective masterwork from a diversely talented artist who had honestly thought that his days of making music were behind him. My first question was simply, “Tell me whatever you want to tell me about.” And Julian Lennon had plenty to say.
