Julian Lennon at Peace With Late Father Now & Focuses on Spreading a Positive Earth Day Message

My son and I meeting Julian Lennon at the "Touch the Earth" book signing event on Saturday morning, April 15, 2017. It was a thrill to meet him!

Julian Lennon is receiving some considerable publicity lately. He released a new children's book right on time for Earth Day, and is currently on a book tour promoting it. Some of the proceeds from sales of the book are going to his charity, and it is interesting to note that the genesis of this charity actually had tied to his legendary father, John Lennon.

It really is no secret that there were tensions that existed between Julian Lennon and his famous father. While John Lennon famously made his love and pure adoration of his second son, Sean Lennon, a very public thing, particularly with the release of his incredible and moving song, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), relations with his first son, Julian, were quite a bit more strained. Reflecting on this all of these years later, Julian Lennon feels he understands why this happened the way that it did:

“He 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.”

Speaking of his father, he said that while there was some bitterness about the past, he was trying to be positive and let go. While John Lennon famously spoke and sang beautifully of love, he was not all that great at giving love to his first-born son.

“Mum was more about love than Dad. He sang about it, he spoke about, but he never really gave it, at least not to me as his son."

Julian seems to be more at peace with this now. He recognized that he has a bit of a dark side, and he knows from which side of the family that he got this:

“The darker side definitely comes from Dad. Whenever I get too aggressive, which comes from Dad's side, I try to calm myself down, be more positive."

Lennon can now admit that he had some measure of jealousy towards his half-brother, Sean Lennon, because of how much more attention his father gave to Sean than he did to Julian:

“I remember thinking, when Dad gave up music for a couple of years to be with Sean, "Why couldn't he do that with me?" Those thoughts haunted me for a time.” 

But Julian had gotten together with Sean in 2007, and the two hit it off very well. This was something that Julian spoke of when I saw him recently at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square in New York City for a booksigning there. He said that they basically became best friends, and he still holds some hopes that the two of them can come together again possibly for some musical projects. Julian also mentioned that following his present book tour, he will sit down and try to lock himself inside of his studio, and finally produce another album, for the first time in many years.

Julian Lennon recalls the story of what got him to begin his charity, the White Feather Foundation:

“Many, many moons ago, I was on tour in Australia, and the [environmentally conscious protest] song ‘Saltwater’ was No. 1 over there in Asia at that time. And I was touring, and I was in Adelaide, and I was in the hotel, and the management of the hotel called me and said, ‘Mr. Lennon, there's an aboriginal tribe down here with 30 to 50 people and a couple of news crews.’ When Julian went downstairs, he encountered members of the indigenous Mirning tribe, and it was a fateful, spiritual moment that changed the course his life and even reconnected him to his dad, who died in 1980.  

“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?’ And it was a bit of a shocker, because 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 OK, or that we're all going to be OK, 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.” 

 “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.”

Lennon mentioned this story of how he was approached by an elder of an aboriginal tribe in Australia, and given a white feather. This game him chills, understandably. And so, Lennon was struck, and he eventually founded his charity, the White Feather Foundation. Some proceeds from this book go towards this charity, which tries to do good work and spread positive messages throughout the world.

He released his environmentally themed book on Earth Day, which has obvious significance. Lennon explains how he feels about Earth Day:

“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.”

Here are the links to the two articles on Julian Lennon that I used in writing this piece, and from which I obtained the quotes used in the same:


Julian Lennon's afterlife Earth Day message from father gave him 'goosebumps for days'  Lyndsey ParkerEditor-in-Chief, Music,Yahoo Music•April 19, 2019:

https://news.yahoo.com/julian-lennons-afterlife-earth-day-message-from-father-gave-him-goosebumps-for-days-232346083.html?fbclid=IwAR3bPZDKwOnMTlnphY-1kF-cAYTsk5XCFOb6w4LiqVSSMmcOfkRpbL96Ihw

Julian Lennon blames father John for his lack of children John Lennon was such a bad father that he put his own son, Julian, off having children.•By Richard Eden, Mandrake, and Adam Lusher7:32AM GMT 04 Dec 2011:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8933287/Julian-Lennon-blames-father-John-for-his-lack-of-children.html