Playboy Interview 1980
Page 12
Yoko: It was good for me to do the
business and regain my pride about what I could do. And it was good to know what
he needed, the role reversal that was so good for him.
John: And we learned that it's better for the family if we are both working for
the family, she doing the business and me playing mother and wife. We reordered
our priorities. The number-one priority is her and the family. Everything else
revolves around that.
Yoko: It's a hard realization. These days, the society prefers single people.
The encouragements are to divorce or separate or be single or gay - whatever.
Corporations want singles - they work harder if they don't have family ties.
They don't have to worry about being home in the evenings or on the weekends.
There's not much room for emotions about family or personal relationships. You
know, the whole thing they say to women approaching 30 that if you don't have a
baby in the next few years, you're going to be in trouble, you'll never be a
mother, so you'll never be fulfilled in that way and...
John: Only Yoko was 73 when she had Sean. [Laughter]
Yoko: So instead of the society discouraging children, since they are important
for society, it should encourage them. It's the responsibility of everybody. But
it is hard. A woman has to deny what she has, her womb, if she wants to make it.
It seems that only the privileged classes can have families. Nowadays, maybe
it's only the McCartneys and the Lennons or something.
John: Everybody else becomes a worker-consumer.
Yoko: And then Big Brother will decide - I hate to use the term Big Brother....
John: Too late. They've got it on tape. [Laughs]
Yoko: But, finally, the society...
John: Big Sister - wait till she comes!
Yoko: The society will do away with the roles of men and women. Babies will be
born in test tubes and incubators....
John: Then it's Aldous Huxley.
Yoko: But we don't have to go that way. We don't have to deny any of our organs,
you know.
John: Some of my best friends are organs...
Yoko: The new album...
John: Back to the album, very good...
Yoko: The album fights these things. The messages are sort of old-fashioned -
family, relationships, children.
Playboy: The album obviously reflects your new priorities. How have things gone
for you since you made that decision?
John: We got back together, decided this was our life, that having a baby was
important to us and that anything else was subsidiary to that. We worked hard
for that child. We went through all hell trying to have a baby, through many
miscarriages and other problems. He is what they call a love child in truth.
Doctors told us we could never have a child. We almost gave up. "Well,
that's it, then, we can't have one. . . ." We were told something was wrong
with my sperm, that I abused myself so much in my youth that there was no
chance. Yoko was 43, and so they said, no way. She has had too many miscarriages
and when she was a young girl, there were no pills, so there were lots of
abortions and miscarriages; her stomach must be like Kew Gardens in London. No
way. But this Chinese acupuncturist in San Francisco said, "You behave
yourself. No drugs, eat well, no drink. You have child in 18 months." And
we said, "But the English doctors said...." He said, "Forget what
they said. You have child." We had Sean and sent the acupuncturist a
Polaroid of him just before he died, God rest his soul.
Playboy: Were there any problems because of Yoko's age?
John: Not because of her age but because of a screw - up in the hospital
and the fucking price of fame. Somebody had made a transfusion of the wrong
blood type into Yoko. I was there when it happened, and she starts to go rigid,
and then shake, from the pain and the trauma. I run up to this nurse and say,
"Go get the doctor!" I'm holding on tight to Yoko while this guy gets
to the hospital room. He walks in, hardly notices that Yoko is going through
fucking convulsions, goes straight for me, smiles, shakes my hand and says,
"I've always wanted to meet you, Mr. Lennon, I always enjoyed your
music." I start screaming: "My wife's dying and you wanna talk about
my music!" Christ!
Playboy: Now that Sean is almost five, is he conscious of the fact that his
father was a Beatle or have you protected him from your fame?
John: I haven't said anything. Beatles were never mentioned to him. There was no
reason to mention it; we never played Beatle records around the house, unlike
the story that went around that I was sitting in the kitchen for the past five
years, playing Beatle records and reliving my past like some kind of Howard
Hughes. He did see "Yellow Submarine" at a friend's, so I had to
explain what a cartoon of me was doing in a movie.
Playboy: Does he have an awareness of the Beatles?