While giving an interview to Playboy in 1980, John Lennon shut down criticisms that Yoko Ono was “controlling” him. It had been a long-standing rumor from critics who felt that Ono’s influence had broken up The Beatles, and Lennon and Ono were often frustrated with the negativity and insult.
Lennon began by sharing his disdain for how they were portrayed in the media. They had stopped giving interviews for a period of time, but he found that they were still constantly reported on.
“The gossip items never stopped,” he said. “We never stopped being in the press, but there seemed to be more written about us when we weren’t talking to the press than when we were.”
Some of that publicity centered on Ono’s influence over Lennon. However, the two rejected the gossip, finding it insulting, hurtful, and just plain ridiculous. When asked about the negative press, John Lennon shared some vulnerable truths.
“We are both sensitive people and we were hurt a lot by it,” he admitted. “I mean, we couldn’t understand it. When you’re in love, when somebody says something like, ‘How can you be with that woman?’ you say, ‘What do you mean? I am with this goddess of love, the fulfillment of my whole life. Why are you saying this? Why do you want to throw a rock at her or punish me for being in love with her?’”
John Lennon on Negative Press and the Insult of People Assuming Yoko Ono Had Controlled Him
John Lennon and Yoko Ono had their share of rough patches, but ultimately, their relationship was strong. It most likely would have lasted, if Lennon hadn’t been killed. Still, in the 1980 interview, Lennon revealed the cost of the negativity surrounding his marriage, and how he and Ono stayed strong through the gossip.
“Our love helped us survive it, but some of it was pretty violent,” said Lennon. “There were a few times when we nearly went under, but we managed to survive and here we are.” As noted in the interview, Lennon glanced upwards and said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” as if praising an unseen deity or force that helped them keep it together.
When asked about the rumors that John Lennon was “under Yoko’s spell,” and that she controlled him somehow, Lennon retaliated. “Well, that’s rubbish, you know,” he said. “Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible.”
“Who Needs a Beatle?”
Lennon continued, after being pressed that some people believed the rumors. “Listen,” he said, “if somebody’s gonna impress me, whether it be a Maharishi or a Yoko Ono, there comes a point when the emperor has no clothes. There comes a point when I will see.
“So for all you folks out there who think that I’m having the wool pulled over my eyes, well, that’s an insult to me,” Lennon continued. “Not that you think less of Yoko, because that’s your problem. What I think of her is what counts! Because … f–k you, brother and sister … you don’t know what’s happening. I’m not here for you. I’m here for me and her and the baby!”
Yoko Ono added, “Of course, it’s a total insult to me,” before Lennon explained that “she doesn’t need me.” For Ono, she admitted that she had her own life, asking, “Why should I bother to control anybody?”
Ono and Lennon disliked the rumors and theories that the press had come up with about them, assuming things about their personal relationship without even knowing them. They despised the weird obsession people had with them, with Lennon insisting that he didn’t want the publicity, the fame, the attention. In the end, he made it clear that it wasn’t a con, he wasn’t being controlled. They were simply very much in love.
“She doesn’t need a Beatle,” said Lennon. “Who needs a Beatle?”
