Playboy Interview 1980
Page 2
Yoko: I learned. The law is not a mystery to me
anymore. Politicians are not a mystery to me. I'm not scared of all that
establishment anymore. At first, my own accountant and my own lawyer could not
deal with the fact that I was telling them what to do.
John: There was a bit of an attitude that this is John's wife, but surely she
can't really be representing him.
Yoko: A lawyer would send a letter to the directors, but instead of sending it
to me, he would send it to John or send it to my lawyer. You'd be surprised how
much insult I took from them initially. There was all this "But you don't
know anything about law; I can't talk to you." I said, "All right,
talk to me in the way I can understand it. I am a director, too."
John: They can't stand it. But they have to stand it, because she is who
represents us. [Chuckles] They're all male, you know, just big and fat, vodka
lunch, shouting males, like trained dogs, trained to attack all the time.
Recently, she made it possible for us to earn a large sum of money that
benefited all of them and they fought and fought not to let her do it, because
it was her idea and she was a woman and she was not a professional. But she did
it, and then one of the guys said to her, "Well, Lennon does it
again." But Lennon didn't have anything to do with it.
Playboy: Why are you returning to the studio and public life?
John: You breathe in and you breathe out. We feel like doing it and we have
something to say. Also, Yoko and I attempted a few times to make music together,
but that was a long time ago and people still had the idea that the Beatles were
some kind of sacred thing that shouldn't step outside its circle. It was hard
for us to work together then. We think either people have forgotten or they have
grown up by now, so we can make a second foray into that place where she and I
are together, making music - simply that. It's not like I'm some wondrous,
mystic prince from the rock-'n'-roll world dabbling in strange music with this
exotic, Oriental dragon lady, which was the picture projected by the press
before.
Playboy: Some people have accused you of playing to the media. First you become
a recluse, then you talk selectively to the press because you have a new album
coming out.
John: That's ridiculous. People always said John and Yoko would do anything for
the publicity. In the Newsweek article [September 29, 1980], it says the
reporter asked us, "Why did you go underground?" Well, she never asked
it that way and I didn't go underground. I just stopped talking to the press. It
got to be pretty funny. I was calling myself Greta Hughes or Howard Garbo
through that period. But still the gossip items never stopped. 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.
Playboy: How do you feel about all the negative press that's been directed
through the years at Yoko, your "dragon lady," as you put it?
John: We are both sensitive people and we were hurt a lot by it. 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?" Our love helped us survive it, but some of it was pretty
violent. There were a few times when we nearly went under, but we managed to
survive and here we are. [Looks upward] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Playboy: But what about the charge that John Lennon is under Yoko's spell, under
her control?
John: Well, that's rubbish, you know. Nobody controls
me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that's just
barely possible.
Playboy: Still, many people believe it.
John: Listen, 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. Not that you think
less of Yoko, because that's your problem. What I think of her is what counts!
Because - fuck 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: Of course, it's a total insult to me...
John: Well, you're always insulted, my dear wife. It's natural...
Yoko: Why should I bother to control anybody?
John: She doesn't need me.
Yoko: I have my own life, you know.
John: She doesn't need a Beatle. Who needs a Beatle?
Yoko: Do people think I'm that much of a con? John lasted two months with the
Maharishi. Two months. I must be the biggest con in the world, because I've been
with him 13 years.
John: But people do say that.
Playboy: That's our point. Why?