🍉 SEAN ONO LENNON - AMA - ASK ME ANYTHING - Here - on Thursday 19 September - Midday ET / 9am PT / 5pm UK / 1am Tokyo

[Beatlephil]

Friendly Fire is honestly one of my favorite albums. The videos that launched with the entire album were amazing as well.

Will this album ever get a repressing? Will the videos ever get an HD update?

 

[Sean]

My only question is how is your mom doing? I hope she's doing well. What does she do to keep busy these days

My only question is how is your mom doing? I hope she's doing well. What does she do to keep busy these days?

She likes certain shows. She likes to watch the deer and the birds outside. Being 'busy' is not her priority.

 

[The_Walrus_Was_Paul]

Yes we have album three in the oven!

I'm so ready for this! Great news!

 

[girlinchair]

I feel like a lot of Yoko's music is overlooked. Some of the lyrics absolutely hit me, there's some really good stuff in there! Do you have any particular favorite songs/albums? Any reason why?

 

[Cáithlin]

Do you think Twitter has gone to shite?

 

[Sean]

This is a great idea!

Dear Sean,

As a fan of you as an artist, it feels rude to just ask about your father. If this were a normal Q&A, I would politely ask when ‘Friendly Fire’ is getting a repress on vinyl, and I would add I have fond memories of seeing you live on stage during that tour and with The GOASTT later. But since I know you are justifiably proud and involved with your father’s legacy projects, and this is the famous Nutopia forum, I will concentrate on that…

The archival projects your mother led in the '80s and '90s were a treasure trove for fans. I’m thinking about the 1998 Anthology boxset and especially the Lost Lennon Tapes radio project. It’s quite unheard of that tens of hours of never-before-heard outtakes of any artist, and even previously unknown full songs, are being broadcast on public radio.

Yet, in the 10 years before the Ultimate series started, it seemed like the well had dried up a bit. Especially on the video front, it often focused on the same known footage from the ‘Imagine’ sessions and New York footage from around that time. But since then I noticed a shift and it seems like every corner of the archives has been thoroughly scoured to uncover rarities never published before.

The ‘Yellow Submarine’ composition tape on the Revolver boxset. The lower-generation cassette of the ‘Now & Then’ demo. The 1973 Sony Portapak home movies. TV shows like The Simon Dee Show in 1970 on the official social media, which were never seen since the original broadcast. The 1970 black-and-white home movies with the ‘Mind Games’ demo. The audio phone conversations as heard in the new One to One documentary. The presumed lost ‘#9 Dream’ tapes as heard in the SiriusXM series. Lots of unseen session photos in the books, and so on, and so on.

So it’s obvious how much effort and care are being put into these projects and how well the archives are being used. My question is: can you describe the current archival process in detail? Specifically, how are the archives approached for these projects? Are all tapes (including home cassettes) being systematically digitized, or is there still an ongoing effort to locate and restore lost material, and are you still finding lost tapes? Lastly, and I can understand you’re not going to give everything away just like that, can you hint at which revelation surprised you the most, on anything not yet released on any Lennon-related boxset?

Thanks a lot, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming projects in the years to come.

Man that's a long one. Well look, the archive is a huge undertaking and we are doing our best. But remember that criminals have stolen things from us over the years. It's a long story. But we are of course trying our best to preserve everything and to keep what we have as organized as possible.

 

[Sean]

My question would be what happened to the SDE of Sometime In New York ? The REAL reason and not any of the many theories in online forums and social media. Will it ever surface ? Could it be made available to purchase directly from this forum or the official John Lennon site, johnlennon.com ?

We're working on it.

 

[phillipbrinkman]

What song of John’s do you find yourself playing the most?

 

[Sean]

Hello from France dear Sean Lennon.
First of all, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to ask you some questions .
I have two questions to ask you.

First of all, do you intend to release your father's piano demos as an album (such as Free as a Bird, Real Love, etc.)?
I love those piano demos and I know I'm not the only one who thinks so.
I'd love to hear them on Spotify and have them on CD. What's more, with the MAL machine it's possible to clean up a few demos that are in poor condition, I presume...

Another question that concerns you directly. Did you ever intend to create music with the children of other Beatles like James, Dani, etc? I mean making music as a quartet.

I wish you a good day

We never planned to do that, no. I work with people when it feels natural and inspired. We wouldn't work together just because of our parents. There would have to be a natural flow to it.

Not sure about a demos album but I am open to all things.

 

[Ingryd Medeiros]

Sean, thank you for trusting us so much! You know, this connection between us and the Ono Lennon family and the Estate is something that John would love, I'm sure. I love helping to keep your father's legacy alive. He lives on in our love.

 

[Skylar Moody]

I'm very grateful to them! They are the ones who will keep the legacy alive into the next gen.

Amen to that!!

 

[Sean]

can you predict how music production would look like in ~2045? having way better AIs and having a lot of insanity going on in the world; how do you think these all would affect musicians and the way they make music in the next 20 years?

I imagine it will be something like the Matrix and we'll just be manifesting orchestras and visuals with our thoughts directly plugged into some overlord robot AI.

 

[Sean]

You are a great guitarist. How did you learn? You do pull on some of your dad's sounds but you are very original, which i really love.

Thanks! Idunno I just play when I write songs. I never play otherwise.

 

[Louden]

Not as many received as I have dished out.

You think you're just being facetious, but you did start that shit with, Captain General Harry.

 

[julia0]

Thanks for doing this! South of Reality is one of my favorite albums of the last decade.

Have you found any other "work tapes" like the "Yellow Submarine" one that was included in the Revolver set? That was just so cool, we'd all love to hear more!

that Yellow Submarine Songwriting Work Tape (Part 1) totally changed the trajectory of the song! his voice singing "no one cared" - really purely expresses the feeling of not being cared about (as a child or adult)

 

[Sean]

what inspires your tweets / posts on X im mad curious

I dunno it's random. Just when I have a thought that feels worth sharing.

 

[Sean]

I really enjoyed the concert you did with the Claypool Lennon Delirium in Paso Robles, CA in 2019 with Les Claypool. I thought your jams were really interesting. Have you considered doing a psychedelic jam album? I'd really like to hear that. Also the keyboardist on that tour was awesome, I'd like to see you collaborate with him again.

Well...I'm open to it sure.

 

[Sean]

I really enjoyed the concert you did with the Claypool Lennon Delirium in Paso Robles, CA in 2019 with Les Claypool. I thought your jams were really interesting. Have you considered doing a psychedelic jam album? I'd really like to hear that. Also the keyboardist on that tour was awesome, I'd like to see you collaborate with him again.

You might like Asterisms:

 

[Julia Stanisławska]

I don't do a lot of video stuff I'm shy.

That's a lot to answer.

1) Mimi was a bit grumpy and made me nervous. She didn't seem to be thrilled with me. It was a strange time as well generally after Dad died. My first trip to England.

2.) Julian got the same Trust as I did. Same amount. Not sure why no one knows this. But it's not something I dwell too much on. Original will - Dad left it all up to Mom. Really out of laziness, I'd say. He is the one who wanted her to run the business stuff. Many men do this. He liked not having to deal with it. Then after that Julian sued, etc... some bad blood. But then it was all worked out. It was a long time ago. I think people are very misinformed about that topic. But also it's none of their business.

3.) When my dad died, the three Persian cats would sit and wait at the kitchen door every morning for my dad to feed them. It was pretty sad. And when we played Double Fantasy LP, one of them jumped onto the record player top and started scratching at the album. It was obvious she could hear dad's voice and thought he was in there. (Sound was not yet on speakers but LPs make a tiny noise you can hear directly off the vinyl).

Thank you for answers! I was aware that Julian got the same Trust. I wish that more people knew that. And I think that I read in the book by your dad's sister Julia that Mimi told her that she liked you. According to her, Mimi said that you reminded her of John. Maybe she was unable to express it.

 

[melina]

I'm very grateful to them! They are the ones who will keep the legacy alive into the next gen.

thank you very much for answering my question!!

WE ARE A FAMILYY