Decades After John Lennon Passed Away, His Son Swore He Was Sent A Sign From Beyond The Grave

Julian was just a teenager when the unthinkable happened: John Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980 as he returned to his Manhattan apartment. The former Beatle had spent the day recording material with his wife Yoko at the Record Plant. And as the pair got out of their ride home, John was fatally shot in the back four times at close range.

His family was left to find some meaning in the face of an impossible loss. In a statement issued the following day, widow Yoko said, “There is no funeral for John. [He] loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him.” The musician’s ashes were then scattered in Central Park in New York City at the future site of the Strawberry Fields memorial.

Mark David Chapman was later given a 20-years-to-life sentence after pleading guilty to the charge of second-degree murder. Grieving fans processed the loss in the only way they knew how: through music. “(Just Like) Starting Over,” a track Lennon had released before his death, climbed to the number one spot on both sides of the Atlantic. And its parent album Double Fantasy also achieved the same feat.

John was survived by his wife of 11 years and his two sons. Sean Ono Lennon was born in 1975, meaning that he was too young to really understand what was happening. His older half-brother Julian — from Lennon's turbulent marriage to Cynthia Powell — had to deal with this tragedy on his own terms.

Sadly, Julian didn’t enjoy a particularly good relationship with his father. In fact, on the advice of the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, John even kept his 1963 birth secret for fear that it would harm the group’s appeal. Julian was also much closer to one of John’s bandmates, Paul McCartney, who wrote “Hey Jude” as a means of comforting the former in the wake of his parents’ divorce.

Julian and John’s bond was further weakened when the Beatle married Yoko Ono. And in the early 1970s, Julian went two years without seeing his father at all. But they slowly began to rebuild their fractured relationship, and John later proved to be an encouraging influence on his son’s musical career. That being said, their bond was a tenuous one.

John spoke about the differences between his two sons in a 1980 chat with Playboy. He told writer David Sheff, “Sean [was] planned... and therein lies the difference. I don’t love Julian any less as a child. He’s still my son, whether he came from a bottle of whiskey or because they didn’t have pills in those days. He’s here, he belongs to me, and he always will.”

“Julian and I will have a relationship in the future,” John confidently stated. Of course, his life was cut short soon after the interview. And it was later discovered that the legendary Beatle had left little to Julian in his will. In the wake of his father’s tragic death, Julian initially displayed both resentment and anger towards the musician.

“I’ve never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me,” Julian admitted in his own interview with Playboy in 1981. “There was some very negative stuff talked about me... like when he said I’d come out of a whisky bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. You think, ‘Where’s the love in that?’”

In a separate interview, Julian also discussed how he’d forged a much closer connection with his father’s songwriting partner. He told Mojo magazine in 2002, “Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit... more than dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad.”

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in 2015, Julian voiced his frustrations at how his father was always being celebrated. The singer admitted, “I have to say that, from my point of view, I felt he was a hypocrite. Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son.”

Julian appeared to be less resentful during an interview six years earlier, however. Referring to the time he spent with John in the mid-1970s, he told The Times, “Dad and I got on a great deal better then. We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang. My memories of that time with dad and May are very clear – they were the happiest times I can remember with him.”

In 2010 Julian joined his mother Cynthia in the British city of Liverpool to unveil the John Lennon Peace Monument. The statue had been designed to both celebrate the late Beatle’s 70th birthday and serve as a peace statement. But Julian’s involvement came as a surprise to some – considering his previous comments about his father’s peacemaker status.

However, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph a year later, Julian once again spoke out about the damage that his father had caused. Talking about the Beatles star’s parenting skills, he said, “[John] was young and didn’t know what the hell he was doing. That’s the reason I haven’t had children yet. I didn’t want to do the same thing. No, I’m not ready. I want to know who I am first.”

Thankfully, Julian’s once-strained relationships with his stepmother and half-brother have improved over the years. He’s said to be relatively cordial with Yoko Ono, and in the mid-2000s, he began spending much more time with Sean Lennon – even to the point where he ended up joining him on tour. Of course, Julian is no stranger to the live circuit himself.

It was perhaps inevitable that Julian would follow in the footsteps of his famous father. He first appeared on record aged just 11 playing the drums on the Walls and Bridges album track “Ya-Ya.” The youngster didn’t know his performance would end up on the LP at the time and reportedly later claimed that he “would’ve played much better” if he had.

A decade later Julian launched his musical career proper with the release of his first studio effort Valotte. Released in 1984, the album helped the star pick up a Best New Artist Grammy nomination. It also produced two U.S. Top 10 singles: “Too Late for Goodbyes” and the title track. However, Lennon soon found that life as a recording artist wasn't always so easy.

However, the knives came out for Julian when his sophomore effort hit the shelves of music stores everywhere in 1986. But despite receiving a major critical drubbing from many outlets, The Secret Value of Daydreaming still managed to peak inside the U.S. Top 40. It also spawned an Album Rock Tracks chart-topper in the shape of “Stick Around.”

Julian showcased his versatility a year later when he appeared as the Baker in The Hunting of the Snark. The star joined the likes of comedian Billy Connolly and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey in the musical penned by Mike Batt. Julian would also later voice David Copperfield in a 1993 TV movie adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel and cameo as a bartender in the movie Leaving Las Vegas.

But music undoubtedly remained Julian’s first love. He released his third LP, Mr. Jordan, in 1989 and two years later scored his biggest ever hit in the United Kingdom with the environmentally-themed protest song “Saltwater.” And its parent album, Help Yourself, also featured a very familiar face on guitar – his father’s former bandmate George Harrison.

Julian took a break from the music industry for much of the 1990s – pursuing his passions for sailing, sculpting, and cooking instead. But he eventually returned to the fold in 1998 with his belated fifth album: Photograph Smile. Four years later he paid tribute to his roots with a cover of The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four” for an insurance ad.

But once again Julian took a lengthy break from the music scene before returning to prominence in a big way. Accompanied by a behind-the-scenes documentary directed by Dick Carruthers, his sixth album, Everything Changes, only arrived in 2011. During this particular hiatus, the star produced WhaleDreamers – a documentary about an Australian aboriginal tribe’s special connection to the sea creatures.

Julian is also a keen photographer, and he showcased his skills with an exhibition named Timeless at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York. Furthermore, in 2010 he published his first book, Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection. The star had started collecting all kinds of Fab Four artifacts in the wake of his father’s untimely passing.

Julian also set up The White Feather Foundation – an initiative designed to tackle humanitarian and environmental problems with the help of partners from across the globe. The charity endeavor was conceived in 2009, which was nearly 30 years after John’s death. But Julian later revealed that his father still had a hand in the project, in a certain way.

In a 2019 chat with Yahoo! Entertainment, Julian discussed how the idea to set up the White Feather Foundation came about. It all started while he was touring in Adelaide at the same time that his environmentally conscious track “Saltwater” was topping the Asian charts. While staying in a hotel, Julian was informed by the manager that up to 50 people from an aboriginal tribe were waiting for him downstairs.

An intrigued Julian was subsequently greeted by several news crews and members of the indigenous tribe known as Mirning. Julian recalled, “The elder of the tribe, who is this lovely woman, walked me in this sort of semi-circle of the tribe and handed me a white feather – a very large white feather – and said, ‘You have a voice. Can you help us?’”

The tribe’s request stunned Julian for one very emotional reason. He told Yahoo! Entertainment, “Dad had said to me at one point that if anything should happen to him in his life, that a way in which he would communicate that he’s okay, or that we’re all going to be okay, would be in the form of a white feather. So, that was a bit of a freaky moment – and undeniable, in my book. Goosebumps, you know, for days.”

Julian said that the impromptu meeting him the impetus to “step up to the plate” and stop “just being a rock n’ roller.” Deciding he will do what he can “for the children,” he later made the aforementioned WhaleDreamers documentary. And all the proceeds from the film – which was even screened at the Cannes Film Festival – went to the Mirning tribe.

Julian added, “And that’s where the White Feather Foundation started. Initially, it was just for that purpose, and one thing led to another. We’ve done many clean water projects around the world. We deal with health and education. It’s an ongoing quest to try and make things better. I had no idea when I received the feather that that’s what that meant, you know, starting a foundation – changing lives in that particular way.”

And Julian isn’t done yet. He’s also published a range of books designed to teach children about the problems that the Earth faces. The singer told Yahoo! Entertainment, “I’m trying to educate through storytelling, in a very simplistic way... I think that the next generation has already shown that they’re far more mindful in many respects than the previous generations.”

Julian added, “I think the facts and the truth need to be out there in regards to environmental and humanitarian issues. There’s a good fighting chance that we’ll still be alive and kicking in a few hundred years – with a bit of luck. We are one with the planet that we live on, and if we do not so good things to that, then we do that to ourselves.”

Speaking on Earth Day, Julian left readers with something to think about as he concluded the interview. He said, “I think the most important thing to take away this Earth Day is that love is everything. It really is. Love and forgiveness is the only way to positively move forward in life. So, cherish those around you, love them dearly, and love the place you live and the planet you live on.”

That shared philosophy wasn't the only link between the famous father and son either. Julian had previously spoken about his dad's beyond-the-grave message in a 2017 interview with Today. And he also told the U.S. morning show that he’s put the ill feelings he had toward the late Beatle to bed. The star admitted, “Forgiveness came to me a long time ago, on that front.”

Today had invited Julian on to the show to promote Touch the Earth – the kids' book aimed to highlight just how important protecting the planet is. And he told the hosts that the work also reflects his relationship with his famous father. Julian said, “[It] is about making that connection with your parents and trying to understand how important that is when growing up.”

“Most of my friends have kids... I think today’s modern mothers and fathers are really quite incredible,” Julian, who has never had children or been married himself, went on to say. He added, “I think they do a great job and I’m hoping this little book will help that along the way.”

Julian continues to devote himself to his charity work. But in early 2020 he suffered a major health scare which reportedly left him “shaking inside.” After visiting a skin specialist, the star was told that the mole he’d had his entire life on his head looked abnormal. And after further tests, it was discovered to be cancerous.

In an interview with the Sun Online, Julian reflected, “Hopefully we managed to remove all that was cancerous. But the mole is being sent off again, for a further/deeper analysis, and I’ll have those results next week. I cannot tell you how I felt, from one moment of joy to the fear of feeling that I may be gone – at any given moment.”

Sadly, Julian knows all too well about the impact of cancer. He lost his mother Cynthia to the condition in 2015. And he encouraged readers to make sure they reduce the risk of going through the same heartache by getting health checks on a regular basis.

“I’m still shaking inside… but my faith is strong,” Julian went on to tell Sun Online. He also paid tribute to the dermatologist who first spotted the cancerous mole and sent him for further tests. The star said, “Thank you, Dr. Tess Mauricio, for quite possibly saving my life... I shall be forever indebted.” In this new chapter, Julian has also looked to patch things up with another family member.

Julian and Sean were pitted against each other decades ago when it came to light that John had cut his elder son out of his will. After all, he’d given Julian and his mother only small amounts of money while he was alive. The divorce settlement with Cynthia only demanded that John pay £2,400 a year for the care of his son. That’s not a lot considering his father was once a Beatle! 

Things didn’t get better after the reading of the will, either. It turned out that John had left his vast fortune to Yoko Ono. So the only thing that had ever been provided for the 17-year-old Julian was a £100,000 trust fund… that he couldn’t access until he was at least 21… and then would have to split with Sean. But Julian didn’t settle for this.

Julian launched a legal battle to get what he felt was rightfully his. But it would be a — ahem — long and winding road to victory. In fact, a financial settlement wouldn’t be reached until 1996 — 16 years after John’s death. The amount Julian accepted from his dad’s estate has never been confirmed, but it’s said to be about £20 million. Yet that would still have left Yoko and Sean with about £200 million.

“I don’t think it was necessarily fair, but I’m okay,” Julian told The Daily Telegraph in 1998. “The last thing I wanted was a court battle because there’s much more money on the estate side than my side.” It’s possible, of course, that Julian could have been awarded much more money if he’d been willing to push on. But there was another factor he had to consider. 

“A court case could have gone on for five years,” Julian said. “The slanderous remarks would have been horrific. There would not have been a private life for either Sean or me.” And so he made the only decision he felt he could: “I just wanted to resolve it, to get the hell out of there. A chapter in my life finished, over with.” But the family beef wasn’t over.

The reason Julian was talking to The Daily Telegraph was because he was releasing a new record. Photograph Smile was his fifth album and should have been cause for celebration. Yet there was another record coming out on the exact same day that only served to fuel the idea of a family rivalry among the Lennons. That album? Sean Lennon’s Into the Sun.

Yes, Julian and Sean Lennon released their albums on the exact same day in May 1998. Plus, Sean supposedly took attention away from Julian’s record launch by talking to the press about his father’s murder. It was a conspiracy theory that was too good for the media to miss. Julian had his say on the matter, too.

But Julian didn’t blame his half-brother. “I do think there are things done without his knowledge,” he told The Telegraph. “Someone in the camp could be manipulating events.” And he seemed to be talking about Yoko Ono. “She wants to make sure Sean’s okay, whatever it takes,” he said. Yet even here Julian stressed that the public weren’t getting the whole story.

“I love Sean to death,” Julian said. “If I’m in New York, I try to see Sean. If I move, I always give him my new number.” The first-born Lennon son has also insisted that his legal troubles with the Lennon estate have never had an impact on his relationship with Sean. Sean has been quick to agree, too.

“There’s a lot of misinformation and rumors about Julian and I not liking each other,” Sean told Mojo in 2020. “But we’ve always been very close. He was a real hero to me. There may have been complicated feelings between my mom and Julian, but that never affected us.” It seems like the bond between the two brothers has only improved since, too. How so?

Well, in 2021 the brothers posted a series of photos on Instagram that seemed to mark an end to the in-fighting once and for all. The snaps showed the Lennon boys during a long drive around the Santa Monica Mountains. It was something Beatles fans might never have expected — but it was likely a day neither man will forget any time soon. 

Julian wrote that the trip had left the brothers “wind blown and tired” but that it had been “so worth it.” He described the drive as “a magical day.” It was the kind of event that could never have happened decades ago… Yet it wasn’t the only earth-shaking announcement that Julian made in 2021. And the other one was to do with his father.

The oldest Lennon boy wasn’t the only person thinking about John in 2021, after all. The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has spent the past four years of his life toiling over 60 hours of footage of The Beatles for the documentary The Beatles: Get Back. And the resulting film had a profound effect on public perceptions of the band — Julian’s included.

The documentary is a compilation of footage that very few people have seen before. It shows The Beatles in 1969 recording their final album, Let It Be — just months before the band broke up. And for the longest time, the public perception was that this was the worst time for everyone in the group. John himself had once branded this period “six weeks of hell.”

But the new film shows that The Beatles were in good form throughout the recording sessions. “I was amazed,” Jackson told The Guardian in 2021. “I was waiting for it to get really bad, but it didn’t. It actually gets happier and happier as it goes.” Yet the cameras did capture their fair share of tricky moments — and they couldn’t all have been easy for Julian and Sean to watch.

One particular moment stands out in relation to the Lennon brothers. The film was shot in 1969, remember, just one year after the divorce of John and Cynthia, Julian’s mom. So when John and Yoko are seen celebrating Yoko’s divorce in the movie, it must have brought up conflicting emotions for both men. And we do know that the Lennons have seen the documentary.

In November 2021 Julian and Sean Lennon rocked up to the Get Back premiere in Los Angeles. They were pictured sitting with Stella McCartney — daughter of ex-Beatle Paul. The three Beatle babies even attended an event organized by Stella after the movie as well. And after the night was done, Julian shared his thoughts on the experience. 

“What an amazing night, firstly seeing Get Back and then Stella’s event afterward,” Julian said in a November Instagram post. “The one true thing I can say about it all is that it has made me so proud, inspired, and feel more love for my/our family than ever before.” The caption accompanied a picture of Julian and Sean at the premiere. But what of his thoughts on the movie?

“The film has made me love my father again, in a way I can’t fully describe,” Julian gushed. “Thank you to all who had a hand in bringing this project to fruition… Life-changing.” So many years after his father’s death, Julian appears ready to truly embrace John again.