Alright, Merry Christmas everyone, it's Jeff Zito. Thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber podcast. And wherever you're listening, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I Heart, please subscribe. We also love a five star rating and also please leave a review. You can go back and check out Taskess and Episodes online at celebrityjobber.com. We examine the lives of celebrities before fame and everybody has a different path. And then there are some like today's guest. You know, sometimes it just so happens to work out where you're born and you're famous. And that wasn't always the case for Sean Lennon, but it kind of was. He appeared on one of his mom's albums at a very, very young age. And pretty much by Osmosis got into the music industry, although he doesn't actually consider this a job. So we are not going to hear an episode of Celebrity Jobber, which you know kind of talks about Sean Lennon before he was famous, because he was always famous. He's the son of John Lennon and Yoko Oh no, that's going to make you famous, you know, right out of the shoot. But we can talk to him a little bit about his early life stops along the way where he's at today. Some of the things that he's working on, maybe some of the things he has planned for the future. I was actually a big fan of one of Sean Lennon's projects in the 90s called Chibo motto. They were an Asian American alternative rock band from the mid to late 90s. And Sean ended up joining that band and collaborating with them for a few years. But there's a connection that I have to Sean Lennon that happened to me at a very, very early age, which I want to share with Sean, which has to do with the day that I found out his father was murdered as a pretty formative memory in my life. So here we go. Merry Christmas. And everybody, the son of John Lennon and Yoko Oh no, Sean Lennon is my guest this week on Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five star rating and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you put it. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? What were about to find out? Sean, how are you, man? I'm good. How you doing? I'm doing great. I just want to share something with you. I have this connection with you to you, formative memory, if you will, where the same age. And we just passed the 45th anniversary of your father's passing. And I remember going to school, you know, it happened that night. We didn't learn about things back then like we do now in social media. I go to school the next morning and the teacher, Mrs. Begman, gets us all around and tells us what is happened. She tells the class that John Lennon has passed away. And I'm five years old and she said, you know, he has a little boy that's your age. And imagine what he's feeling right now. So that teaching five year old kids, empathy. And it's just, I remember looking over to this kid, Robbie Wartick, who lived with his dad, who started to cry. And it's such a formative memory for me. It's such a young age. So can you tell me a little bit about you were so young? What were your thoughts on that day? It was a nightmare. I remember a lot, man. It was deeply traumatizing. But it also kind of forged my personality, I think. The irony or the great paradox of life is that that which doesn't kill you really makes you stronger. And it's such a cliche. But I feel like if you can survive something, it actually gives you kind of strength and insight that you would not have had otherwise. I mean, that's what's so tragic about life and general. And I think you, you know, I think you find that with anybody who survived anything difficult. If you ask them about it, you know, people who survived cancer, they always say that they wouldn't, you know, do have not gone through that. Because they felt it taught them something. And so I think, you know, with tragedy comes wisdom. And there's something's bittersweet about that. But that's the way it goes, you know. Celebrity chopper. The Celebrity chopper podcast with Jeff Cito. What I was trying to get to is at five years old. I mean, such a young, you know, didn't know much about anything at five years old. And I was just wondering at that age, if you had vivid memories, of that time. I do. I do. I do have a bit of memories. I mean, I mean, there's actually a phenomenon psychologically that when you are traumatized as a child, you can, it can actually make your memory really good. And I remember, you know, three, four and five better than I remember, 13, 14, and 10, to be honest. You know, at the time, there were thousands of people outside. There were police barricades outside, you know. And there were thousands of people singing, give peace of chance, and all these Beatles songs. And my window was right there. I mean, I couldn't go to sleep at night because there were so many people camped out in central park, you know, singing my dad's songs, which, which, you know, there was something nice about it, but it was also a little bit scary, to be honest. Right. I could imagine. I could imagine. Especially since, you know, a member of the public had done that. So it was a growing up time. You know, I have to be honest that I think I probably aged prematurely at that moment, you know, even though I was still in the body of an infant, I think it kind of woke me up in a big way. Yeah. I mean, I think it's taken the rest of my life to sort of process it. And I don't think I'll ever be one big out, to be honest. No. And a such a young age, you got into music and, and I'm a big fan of Chibomato FYI. Thank you. I don't know if you were on, I think you were, you played the Viva La Woman tour. I remember that was a crazy night for me. That was a Janis landing in the St. Petersburg, Florida. I can, you know, other than music, I know that you went to Columbia. I know that you majored in anthropology. Were you, were you thinking about another, another life, another occupation, or were you just young going, hey, I'm going to college. That's what we do when we're this age. And what were you, what were your thoughts about life at college at Columbia? What you were going to do? Well, to be honest, I never got a degree in anthropology. It was just something I was interested in, but I left college to go on tour with my mom, actually, because she, we had done a record together. And I was a big fan of my mother's earlier work, the more experimental stuff like plastic on women. And she'd been making all these pop records my whole life, which I really love, to be honest. But I wanted her to make a record in that old style of the, I guess I kind of punk rock wilder style. And so I made a record with her while I was in college. And I thought it was really good. It's a record called Rising. And I still think it's a pretty amazing album. And looking back, you know, it was really cool of her to allow me to do that. It was me and my friend group who recorded the album. And I, she essentially let me kind of co-produce it, co-write it with her. And looking back, I didn't appreciate it at the time. I mean, her bands for albums used to be people like Eric Clapton and Ringo and Guma Crack and Steve Gad and, you know, the greatest players of all time, Tony Levin. And I didn't, it didn't occur to me that how hip it was have heard of, kind of like, let her weird 17 year old kid play with her or 18. I went to college pretty young because I skipped a grade when I was little. But so I left college because of that because it was like, I started having so much fun playing music and I just thought, I don't need college, I'll go on tour. And, you know, that's when I met Chibomato. That's when I started touring with Chibomato. And then I met the B.C. boys and that's how my whole career got started. But to be honest, you know, young people out there, I would say that I regret leaving college. Because it's just always sort of, it's a little, it's a little L, you know, and I mean, it's an L in your life that you never, that never goes away. And I didn't realize it at the time. But, you know, waiting another couple of years to graduate seemed like forever to me at the time. But there's no way I can go through years of college when I could go on tour right now. And, you know, looking back, if I just waited a couple of years, I would have had a cool degree that I'd be proud of. And I would have gone on tour two years later, you know? Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. Music was always the plan, huh? Music. I mean, your first job was in music, you know, your five years old. I didn't have a plan, you know, and I think, you know, I don't, I don't know how 17 year olds have life plans. But I guess they have really good parents or something, because I didn't have or really good parenting. But, you know, my mom is a loving and wonderful person, but she's not a conventional parent. And she never, ever talked to me about planning my future, you know, it wasn't something that I thought about. I was living in the moment as it were. Right. And the, in fact, you know, the example that my parents left me was that they were always living in the moment and not looking back to the past, you know, they would just kind of move on to the next thing. And so I was very spontaneous. And, you know, I regretted a little bit, to be honest. Any other job other than music in your life? I mean, did you ever work at a pizza place? Have you ever had a job outside of show business and music? Not really. I mean, I don't even get paid for show business, man. So yeah, I wouldn't even call me being a musician, a job perfect necessarily, because, you know, it's not like my brother who has a successful music career. I just do it for the love, for the love of the game, man. Well, you're also involved with something that your dad did many years ago. I actually was on YouTube and watched this and his animated film. Can you tell us about what your, is behind the scenes stuff? Really cool. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're currently involved with? You mean the war is overfilm that we just put out on the... Yes. War is over. Yes, sir. I made a short film, well, I wrote a short film with a director named Dave Mullins, who used to work at Pixar, and he directed this animated short that is sort of an extended, I guess, music clip for the song Happy Christmas Wars over. But the difference is between like a regular video in this song is that this film is its own standalone narrative. And we worked really hard on it. It won an Academy Award for Best and Amated Short. And now it's available for the public to see. And I'm really proud of it. We worked really hard on it. And it would really mean a lot to me if people could actually go check it out. It's only 11 minutes long. It's on YouTube. It's on the John Lundman channel. If you just search Wars over film, it should come up. And it's free. But if you want to also donate to War Child, which is a charity that we've partnered with, who help children and families with children who are affected by war, it's a really good charity. So we're trying to raise money for a War Child, and we're trying to give people something to think about on Christmas. Sean, can you tell, we all know your mom, and you have such a great relationship. And I love avant-garde underground for, I mean, it's so cool. I mean, you got a cool mom. Can you tell us something about mom? The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Cito. Celebrity Jobber. Can you tell us something about mom? Like maybe that people don't know. They see Yoko, and it's, you know, but tell me about mom. Can you give me a little something behind the scenes about mom? Something behind the scenes. Well, you know, I think people don't realize what her personality's really like, you know. She's very quiet and sweet and elegant. And I would say very ladylike, you know, I think a lot of people think of her as the woman who screams on stage or, you know, was standing naked with my dad on the two virgins cover. But she's actually very reserved and sweet and quiet and, you know, she's a very nice lady. But she's also, I think, very brilliant. And I think she was very misunderstood for many years. And I think her time has come. I think people are finally recognizing her for her own accomplishments and for the artist who she really is. And yeah, I guess the other thing I would say is that I think people think she only does the kind of avant-garde music. But she also writes a lot of really beautiful pop songs. And there's a film that we did that I was a producer on called One to One, Drone and Yoko. It was about the last concert they did in Madison's World Garden. And there's footage of her singing a song called Age 39 live at a feminist meeting at a university. And it's very beautiful. Not how they recommend people go check it out because she sings great, you know. That's what I think people don't know about her. Anything in your future as far as I don't want to say, I know that Chiba Mato kind of reunited a few years ago. But anything coming up maybe? I'm still very good friends with Yuka Honda from Chiba Mato. I just saw her husband Nels Klein last night. But yeah, I've got a band called The Delirium with less Claypool from Primeth. And we've got a double album coming out next year. And we will be probably touring in July, I think. I'm excited about that record. It's our first double album. So it's a concept record. It has it's basically a rock opera. It's got a story to it. And I think it's going to be really fun. So look for that please. Well, the war is over. Happy Christmas. You go to YouTube. It is a it's a free film short film. Like Sean said, it's 11 minutes long. It's really cool. And it's on the John Lennon channel. And you also said that you can make a donation. Sean, can you tell us about that again real quick? Yeah, there's a charity called War Child that we partnered with. And they're one of the best charities in the world for helping people who are affected by war. They focus on children. And we figured, you know, because this song is really a, you know, a song where kids are singing. And it's a cartoon film that we made that we thought it made sense to partner with War Child because they helped children specifically and families with children who are struggling in war torn areas. Listen, I really appreciate your time this morning. It was a real pleasure getting to talk to you. Thank you so much. Have a great day. All right, later. So if you go to YouTube and search War is over film, you'll see not only the trailer, but the 13 minute animated short film and Academy Award winner, best animated short film, War is over inspired by the music of John and Yoko. Sean also says they partnered with the charity War Child, which you can find online at WarchildUSA.org, which is a great way to donate to a charity this time of year. And they have a donate button right there on the homepage again, WarchildUSA.org. So you know, usually the celebrity job or podcast, we try to, you know, find out more about the celebrity before they were famous. Sean Lennon famous, like right from the beginning. From birth, okay, when you're the child of the most famous people in the world, which, you know, I would say John Lennon and Yoko Ono were probably two most famous people in the world back in 1975 when they had Sean. So a lot of people can't relate pretty interesting to grow up that way. You know, he doesn't know anything else. And I also thought it was interesting. He didn't consider music a job. You know, he talked about his music career not being as successful as his older half-brother Julian Lennon. He said he's pretty much in the music business for the quote unquote for the love of the game. So I thought that was interesting. Sean also mentioned that he didn't have a conventional parents, and especially, you know, growing up with Yoko Ono being his mother. She, you know, didn't have that talk about his future and his path. It seemed like it was live in the moment was the message that, you know, she kind of passed on to her son. He is, is he, does he regret not finishing college? He does. He regrets not finishing Columbia. He said if he just waited a couple more years, he could have gotten that degree that he would have been proud of. And he could have continued to do what he quit school to do, which was go on tour with his mom. He said he was interested in anthropology. So I'm not sure he would have been an anthropologist or whatever else you would do with an anthropology degree. You know, I think music was always going to be it for Sean Lennon, but it's kind of interesting that he didn't really have to worry about that. You know, Sean did mention that, you know, his mom not a conventional parent, but a loving mother. And as I asked Sean to give me a little behind the scenes about his mom, he said very feminine, soft spoken, sweet lady like. And he also mentioned how she has a beautiful singing voice and something that we don't necessarily know either because of Yoko's avant garde underground style of music. So he's had no big break. He's the son of Yoko O'ono and John Lennon. He appeared on one of his mother's albums when he was five years old. I guess we can consider that being his first job. He's never worked at a pizza place or gotten paid for any other job outside of the music industry, which he doesn't consider his occupation, which is pretty interesting when you're that type of person. You don't have to worry about things like that. I'm sure he would trade it all in tomorrow to have a relationship with his father. Thank you so much for listening and wherever it is you listen, whether it's I Heart or Spotify, Apple Podcast, please subscribe. We love a five star rating and please leave a review. You can follow on Instagram, celebrity underscore, job underscore podcast. Also the YouTube channel is youtube.com slash the at sign celebrity jobber. Anyway, Merry Christmas and happy holidays. We'll see you next week with another episode of the celebrity jobber podcast. I'm Jeff Zito.
