Julian Lennon Booksigning - Earth Day 2019, New York City, NY

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!

It was rainy on Earth Day, and so my son and I decided to put off our traditional Earth Day hike for another day later this week.

However, there is something that I did on Earth Day which felt a bit special.

For the second time in three years, I went to see Julian Lennon at a booksigning at the Barnes and Noble at Union Square in Manhattan.

As on the three previous occasions when Lennon made a guest appearance at this Barnes and Noble in Union Square in Manhattan, New York City, Lennon sat down in conversation with Dennis Elsas, a popular and famous radio disk jockey and rock historian, who mentioned at one point that he had done interviews with both of Julian Lennon's parents at points in the past.

Lennon was promoting Heal the Earth, the third and final installment in his Touch The Earth" trilogy of children's picture books, with an Earth-friendly theme. He has made a tradition of releasing these books on Earth Day, and said that if it were up to him, all of his books would be released on Earth Day.

Some good news on the series is that there is apparently a real chance that this could become an animated series in the relatively near future.

These books, and the animated series, are Lennon's attempts to pass a purely positive and hopeful message to young children reinforcing the importance of maintaining a clean environment, and doing one's part to try and keep it clean.

Apart from the books, however, Lennon did speak of some other things.

As in 2017, the first time that I saw him (I did not get to go last year), Lennon repeated the story of how he was approached by an elder of an aboriginal tribe in Australia, and given a white feather. This game him chills, because his father (famous musician and former Beatle John Lennon) had once told him that if something should ever happen to him, he would communicate with him again in the form of a white feather. 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.

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. Julian seems to be more at peace with this now.

Staying within the family, he mentioned that he has spent some considerable time with his half-brother, Sean, who is currently on tour with his collaborative musical project, The Claypool Lennon Delirium. He said that he got on very well with Sean when they got together, to the point that they became best friends. Also, he mentioned that Sean is even more into cameras than Julian himself is, even though Julian has done some serious, professional photography. 

Lennon was also asked - repeatedly - about some hints that he had put on social media, suggesting that he was in the studio and trying to finish material for an upcoming album. In fact, Lennon said that he had about 100 songs relatively near completion, and suggested that there may be more than one album in the relatively near future. Once he gets done with the present book tour, he will go to the studio and, as he said, not go anywhere for a good, long while, in hopes of finishing enough music to at least produce an album. 

Lennon also mentioned that he had run into Ringo just months before. It had been the first time that the two had seen each other in about 20 years, and Lennon explained that the previous time had been unpleasant, as Ringo had been struggling with drinking, and had acted in a manner that had not pleased Lennon. But they got along very well this time around, and he said that it had been an emotional reunion, with tears shed.