When it comes to getting the inside scoop on The Beatles, Julian Lennon is just like the rest of us — it’s all a magical mystery to him.
The 61-year-old firstborn son of the late John Lennon admits that he’s not privy to any new activity by the Fab Four, who are still making moves — and big money — six decades after they made their debut.
“It’s news to me half the time. I’m not part of the inner circle – I never have been,” Lennon told The Guardian.
“You have to realize that when Dad left, when I was between 3 and 5 (it was a bit of a process), it was just mum and me, and we had nothing to do with The Beatles or Dad,” explained the singer, whose mother was John’s first wife, Cynthia. “I visited him on the odd occasion but we were very much on the outside. I’m thankful that Sean [Lennon, John’s son with second wife Yoko Ono] and I get on like a house on fire – we’re best buddies and he tells me what he can, but things are pretty secret on the Beatles front.”
The recent Beatles resurgence has included documentaries such as 2021’s “Get Back” and 2024’s “Beatles ’64” — directed by Peter Jackson and produced by Martin Scorsese, respectively — as well as a restored version of 1970’s “Let It Be.” Not to mention the Fab Four’s 2023 comeback single “Now and Then,” which is up for Record of the Year at the Grammys on Feb. 2.
But Lennon has been in the dark about it all.
“[It’s] extraordinarily strange but I’m not upset about it,” he said. “I’d rather be excited and impressed by what they did and continue to do. As a fan, I’m just as curious as anybody else, although I do find myself going, ‘How is it possible that there’s another Beatles film?’ ”
Lennon — who has a new coffee table book, “Life’s Fragile Moments,” featuring his photography work — has battled to step out of his father’s shadow since releasing his debut album, “Valotte,” in 1984.
“It had always been, ‘John Lennon’s son, John Lennon’s son,’ and I’m going, ‘for F’s sake,’” he said. “I said, what I need to do for me, first and foremost, is to build up a body of work, a foundation that I can stand on, that nobody can take away from me. And I continue to do so. It’s not to show off, it’s just to prove to myself that I can actually do this stuff. I’m not interested in fighting other people’s opinions.”
In 2020, the singer-songwriter — who was actually born John Charles Julian Lennon — legally changed his name to Julian Charles John Lennon.
“I’d always take an issue with that, because I’d always been known as Julian — first and foremost to my mum,” he told The Post in 2022. “And I used to get a lot of crap for [being named John] at airport security. People would look at my passport, maybe not recognize me, and go, ‘John Lennon — ha, ha, that’s funny.’ After over 30-40 years of publicly having to deal with that … I just went, ‘You know what? I want to be Julian, I want to be me for F sake.’”
But his last album, 2022’s “Jude,” was indeed a reference to “Hey Jude,” the 1968 No. 1 hit by The Beatles. Paul McCartney originally wrote the song “Hey Jules” — a reference to Julian’s nickname — to comfort John’s young son after his father left his mother for Ono.
Lennon recently underwent emergency surgery after a second skin cancer scare, but was given the “all clear” just before the new year.
“Beyond Thankful for everything!” he wrote on Instagram. “Here’s to a Happy & Healthy 2025.”
