John Lennon led a lot of the creativity and artistry in The Beatles while the band was still together. While the Fab Four eventually split up in 1970, John didn’t stop making music. Instead, he went on to create 11 solo albums with help from his wife, Yoko Ono.
Although John had been working in the music industry for years at that point, fans may be surprised to learn he was a little shy about his voice.
John had been singing professionally on stage since 1964, so he was no stranger to displaying his vocal talents to the masses.
But according to his son, Sean Ono Lennon, the singer was insecure about his talents.
Sean recently spoke with George Stroumboulopoulos – STROMBO – on Apple Music Hits to commemorate what would have been John’s 80th birthday this month.
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During the chat, Sean explained how Yoko would tinker with John’s songs during recording to ensure they were as good as possible.
Sean said: “[John] would leave the studio, go to the bathroom, and my mom would have to sneak up and turn his vocal up.
“She said she would do that every time he left to make sure that he didn’t turn it down before they bounced, because he was, oddly enough, apparently he was insecure about his own voice, which I understand.”
This was an ongoing occurrence for John, according to Sean, and the star would constantly turn down his own vocals during recording.
Sean asked: “I mean, was there that kind of feeling that he thought, you know, ‘I’m not a real musician’?
Paul replied with a surprising answer, saying: “I don’t think any of us were [musicians], tell you the truth.
“I think that was a very good, strong thing about us actually, funnily enough. We all had to learn together.
“The nearest to John feeling like he wasn’t a true musician could have been that in the skiffle craze, when everyone else is playing guitar chords, he only knew a couple of banjo chords, but that only lasted a week or two.”
McCartney added: “And I would just show him chords I knew which were very basic, but it was great bonding just learning chords off each other.”
Sean and McCartney spoke intimately about John 40 years after his death.
The Hey Jude singer was murdered in 1980 in New York by Mark David Chapman.
STROMBO speaks to Sean Ono Lennon on Apple Music Hits. The two hour special will broadcast tonight (Friday, October 9) at 11pm. Tune in here.