Sean Ono Lennon Says Reconnecting with Dad John's Music Filled a 'Void': 'Like Getting More Time with Him' (Exclusive)

• Sean Ono Lennon has taken over the stewardship of his family’s unique musical legacy
• A deeply moving 11-minute short animated film The war is over! he won an Oscar in March
• The flurry of archival activity continued this summer with a lavish reissue of John’s 1973 album. Mind games

The Beatles may be part of our cultural DNA, but for Sean Ono Lennon, their songs are the key to understanding his own real DNA. Learning to play guitar through those songs was an act of community, each strum bringing him closer to his father John Lennon, who was killed in December 1980. John was 40 and Sean was 5. “I never played music because I was good at it,” tells PEOPLE. “I lost my father and I didn’t know how to fill that void. Learning to play his songs on the guitar was a way to process the loss with an activity that made me feel connected to him. When you lose a parent, things like that motivate you — because that’s why I was trying to find them that I felt like I was getting to know him better.

Now 49, Sean has spent the past three decades building a rich career as a top artist through a series of acclaimed solo records and inventive musical projects with the likes of Primus bassist Les Claypool, alt-rocker Cibo Matto, longtime girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl and his mother Yoko Ono. In recent years, after Ono, 91, retired from public life and retired to the country estate she bought with John in 1978, Sean took on the responsibility of managing his family’s unique musical legacy. More than just an administrative person, he channels his incredible creative energy into innovative ways of presenting the timeless art of his parents to new generations. To call it “the role he was born to play” ignores the immense effort that goes into designing and making these productions, but there is certainly a grain of truth in the clichéd sentence. “I definitely feel like I was making music and art before I thought about it as a choice,” he says.

John Lennon shows Sean Lennon the mixing desk at The Hit Factory in New York in August 1980.

Bob Gruen

Under Sean’s guidance, a simple proposal for a new music video for his parents’ peace Christmas hymn “Merry Christmas (The War Is Over)” turned into something far more imaginative and compelling. “My idea was, ‘It’s such a famous song; maybe we need a short film that uses it as music. We can recontextualize the music in a way that’s refreshing.’” It’s a concept borrowed from Martin Scorsese, who knows the value of skillful needle-throwing. “Think about when you’re watching one of Scorsese’s movies and a song you’ve heard a million times comes on. In the context of the story you’re involved in, suddenly it’s like rediscovering music for the first time. I was kind of hoping for that [with “Happy Xmas” (War Is Over).”]

The result, a deeply moving 11-minute short animated film The war is over! he won an Oscar in March. The “surreal” occasion gave Sean the chance to mingle with Nicolas Cage (“I’m such a huge fan. He’s so charismatic and fun to watch.”) and wish his mother a happy Mother’s Day in the UK from the podium. “A lot of people thought I was too ambitious,” admits shyly Sean, who developed the story with director Dave Mullins. “And I thought I might be too! But then we won the Oscar and that kind of validated the whole project for me.”

The flurry of archival activity continued this summer with a lavish reissue of John’s 1973 album. Mind games. Part fine art, part time capsule, the limited edition Ultimate Collection Super Deluxe box set boasts revelatory remixes produced by Sean himself, plus a treasure trove of puzzles, maps, replica artwork and coffee table books — all contained within 40- pound, 13-inch cube. “It’s a monumental object, let’s put it that way!” Sean offers with a self-deprecating laugh. “I don’t think a lot of people understood why we wanted to do something so physically large in the digital world. But for me it was really about making a monument to an album that I personally think is a masterpiece.”

Some fans were confused by the almost comically elaborate treatment of the album, which received a lukewarm response upon its initial release, contributing to its (largely unfair) reputation as a minor entry in the Lennon canon. But for Sean, it’s a matter of passion instead of prestige. “I grew up listening to all my dad’s music as a kid, and at that age nobody tells you about reviews. I really liked the album. It has some of my favorite songs on it. I didn’t even realize that until working on the box set – and quite late in the process Mind games it wasn’t as well reviewed as the other albums he made.”

Obviously those reviews were written before anyone could know how limited John’s creative output would be. With only seven “traditional” solo albums completed during his lifetime (one of which is a cover album of a ’50s rock standard), it’s easy to argue – as Sean does – that there is no such thing as an irrelevant Lennon record. all said, Mind games it took a long time to reassess. Expansive liner notes full of interviews and fly-on-the-wall session tapes provide enlightening context, and Sean’s mixes reproduce songs originally created for the murky mono of AM radio in vital clarity for the AirPod era.

This gloriously obsessive endeavor could only have come from the enthusiastic fervor of fans – which Sean very much is. It is a key component of his complex relationship to music. He hopes this deep dive will help fans discover what he’s always loved Mind games. “I thought, ‘My dad only has a few solo records. So if we’re going to release them again, it’s my job to treat them with as much love, intention and thoughtfulness as humanly possible.’ As I talked about wanting to recontextualize music with The war is over! short film: If we’re going to play this music again, we have to treat it in a new way.”

The massive collection, which earned Sean and art director Simon Hilton a Grammy nomination for Best Box or Special Limited Edition Package earlier this month, has revolutionized the very notion of reissues through the use of interactive apps, immersive games (some requiring UV light, thoughtfully included) and “mixes for meditation” songs from the album that put the listener in a trance-like state through the use of binaural beats. “The initial concept for me was ‘mind games’ — mind games,” says Sean, who served as creative director. “So I thought we’d play with people’s minds a little. We have illusions in there, we have some secret stuff and we have some games. All this is related to the theme of ‘mind games’. Meditation is a mind game. Even reflections is a mind game.”

Sean teases that more details hidden in the Super Deluxe set will be coming soon. “The whole thing is intertwined in a way that will eventually reveal itself.” Despite these assurances, there seems to be a very real possibility that all the secrets are contained within Mind games the framework will never be fully known.

The multimedia nature of the project goes back to the idea he absorbed through Ono. “She showed me that art is conceptual. The essence of conceptual art is that it doesn’t matter what medium you express yourself in because it starts in your mind. It had a big impact on me. For better or for worse, I made movies, oil paintings, made rock records. I even recorded a jazz record this year. So, for what it’s worth, my philosophy on creativity comes entirely from Yoko’s ‘art is conceptual’ mentality. The medium is secondary. That’s why I have this arrogance to think I can make movies or do whatever I want!”

Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon in New York in September 2018.

Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

It is a silent but powerful presence Mind games. The songs bear traces of her playful avant-garde artistry – most notably “The Nutopian National Anthem”, which consists of three seconds of silence. In session recordings, Ono can be heard alongside John in the studio offering insightful feedback, proof of what those close to her always knew: she was John’s inspiration and equal collaborator.

While the couple would briefly split shortly after the record’s release, the passionate lyrics continued Mind games could only come from the open heart of a deeply devoted husband. In the song “Out of the Blue” he sings: I was born just to get to you / Anyway, I survived / long enough for you to become my wife.

“The whole album is about my mom,” says Sean. “My dad announced to the world that ‘John and Yoko’ are one word. I think he was always attached to her. He was so in love with her. They had a legendary love and I think this album is imbued with that love. You can hear it.”

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in New York in April 1973.

bob gruen/universal music

If the original record is a love message from John to Yoko, the box set is an expression of love from Sean and John. Although the time spent with his father ended at an age when memories are hazy for most, Sean’s memories are unusually vivid. “Going through something very traumatic as a child can actually freeze memories of that time period in your brain,” he says. “They are set in stone for me.” Some photos are momentary—making paper airplanes, watching the Muppets, swimming in the ocean—while others are more impressionistic: the smell of burning incense, the scratchy stubble on his father’s beard, the bony outline of his ankle, and the cold metal of his guitar strings.

John Lennon’s son Sean says he refuses to let his father’s music be ‘forgotten’ ahead of his 84th birthday

Yoko Ono Sean Lennon and John Lennon in 1977.

Mediapunch/Shutterstock

For Sean, overseeing these projects goes beyond family duty. Sorting through the archives helps him piece together the mosaic of a man he barely knew from the job he left behind. “You build someone out of fragments,” he explains. Listening to the raw session recordings is tantamount to time travel as John can be heard making jokes and comments to his fellow musicians. “I grew up mostly knowing my dad through pictures and videos, because he wasn’t around,” Sean continues. “So whenever I hear my dad say something I haven’t heard before, even just for a second, it means a lot to me. It’s like gold. It’s valuable because it’s like I get more time with him.”

For more from Sean Ono Lennon, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

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Source: HIS Education