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

Mar. 15, 2025

Sean Ono Lennon in New York City in July 2014.Photo: Jack Vartoogian/Getty

The Beatlesmay be part of our cultural DNA, but forSean Ono Lennon, their songs are the key to understanding hisactualDNA. Learning to play guitar through those tracks was an act of communion, every strum bringing him closer to his fatherJohn Lennon, who was killed in December 1980. John was 40 and Sean was 5. “I never played music because I was good at it,” he tells PEOPLE. “I lost my father and I didn’t know how to fill that void. Learning how to play his songs on guitar was a way to process the loss with an activity that made me feel connected to him. When you’ve lost a parent, things like that motivate you — because you’re trying to find them. Making music always made me feel like I was getting to know him better. ”

Now 49, Sean has spent the last three decades building a rich career as an accomplished artist in his own right through a string of acclaimed solo records and inventive musical projects with the likes of Primus bassist Les Claypool, alt-rockers Cibo Matto, longtime girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, and his mother,Yoko Ono. In recent years, after Ono, 91, stepped back from public life and retired to the rural estate she purchased with John in 1978, Sean has assumed the mantle of managing his family’s singular musical legacy. More than just an administrative figure, he channels his formidable creative energy into innovative ways to present his parents’ timeless art to new generations. To call it “the role he was born to play” ignores the tremendous effort required to conceive and craft these productions, but there’s certainly a kernel of truth in the clichéd line. “I definitely feel like I was making music and art before I thought about it as a choice,” he says.

John Lennon showing Sean Lennon the mixing table at The Hit Factory in New York City in August 1980.Bob Gruen

Bob Gruen

Under Sean’s leadership, the simple suggestion of a new music video for his parents’ Yuletide peace anthem “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” morphed 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 a score. We can re-contextualize the music in a way that’s refreshing.'” It’s a concept borrowed fromMartin Scorsese, who knows the value of a skillful needle-drop. “Think about when you’re watching one of Scorsese’s movies and a song comes on that you’ve heard a million times. In the context of a story you’re engaged in, suddenly it’s like rediscovering the music for the first time. That’s kind of what I was hoping for [with “Happy Xmas” (War Is Over).”]

The result, a deeply moving 11-minute animated short calledWar Is Over!,earned an Academy Award in March. The “surreal” occasion afforded Sean the opportunity to both hang withNicolas Cage(“I’m such a big fan. He’s so charismatic and fun to watch.”) andwish his mother a happy U.K. Mother’s Dayfrom the podium. “A lot of people thought that I was being overly ambitious,” Sean, who co-developed the story with director Dave Mullins, sheepishly admits. “And I thought I might be as well! But then we won the Oscar, and that sort of validated the whole project for me.”

John and Yoko’s longtime friend Elliot Mintz recently opened up about the iconic couple in his new bookWe All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me(out now). Inan exclusive interview with PEOPLE, he discussed the impact John’s death had on Yoko — and Sean’s careful management of his father’s estate.

“After John’s murder, she always missed him. She always lamented his passing. There was always loving confusion about what had happened, why it happened and what could she possibly do to maintain John’s legacy for future generations. It all consumed her, and it did right up till she asked Sean to take over all matters having to do with the estate and his father’s legacy,” Mintz says.

Mintz adds: “He’s done one brilliant job of doing that. Every mother should be as fortunate to have a son like Sean Ono Lennon. And every departed father who wanted to have a legacy maintained could not have assigned it to a better soul. Sean, to a significant degree, has dedicated now much of his waking hours, much of his life, to his mother and his father’s legacy. I applaud him for that. I love him for that.”

The gargantuan collection, which snagged Sean and art director Simon Hiltona Grammy nom earlier this monthfor best boxed or special limited edition package, has revolutionized the very notion of reissues through its use of interactive apps, immersive games (some requiring a UV light, thoughtfully included), and“meditation mixes”of album tracks that put the listener into a trance-like state through the use of binaural beats. “The initial concept for me was ‘mind games’ — games of the mind,” says Sean, who served as creative director. “So I thought we would play with people’s minds a bit.  We have illusions in there, we have some secret things, andwe’ve got some games. It’s all to do with the theme of ‘mind games.’ Meditation is a mind game. Eventhinkingis a mind game.”

The multimedia nature of the project harkens back to an idea he absorbed through Ono. “She showed me that art is conceptual. The essence of concept art is that it doesn’t matter what medium you express yourself in because it starts in your mind. That influenced me a lot. For better or for worse, I’ve made films, I’ve made oil paintings, I’ve done rock records.I’ve even done a jazz record this year. So, for whatever it’s worth, my philosophy about being creative completely originates with this Yoko mentality of ‘art is conceptual.’ The medium is secondary. So that’s why I have this arrogance that I think I can make films or do whatever I want!"

Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon in New York City in September 2018.Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

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

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in New York City in April 1973.bob gruen/universal music

bob gruen/universal music

If the original record is a love note from John to Yoko, the box set is an expression of love from Sean and John. Though his time with his father ended at an age when memories are hazy for most, Sean’s recollections are unusually vivid. “Going through something very traumatic when you’re a child can basically freeze the memories of that time period in your brain,” he says. “For me, they’re etched in stone.” Some are snapshots — making paper airplanes, watching the Muppets, swimming in the ocean — while others more impressionistic: the smell of burning incense, the scratchy stubble on his father’s chin, the boney outline of his ankle, and the cold metal of his guitar strings.

Yoko Ono Sean Lennon and John Lennon in 1977.Mediapunch/Shutterstock

Mediapunch/Shutterstock

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

Liz McNeil

source: people.com