John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death – according to the tragic Beatles star’s last personal assistant.
Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon’s death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.
In new documentary Beatles Stories, Seaman tells filmmaker Seth Swirsky Lennon wasn’t the peace-loving militant fans thought he was while he was his assistant.
He says, “John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.
“He’d met Reagan back, I think, in the 70s at some sporting event… Reagan was the guy who had ordered the National Guard, I believe, to go after the young (peace) demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that… He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me.
“I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who’s an old-time communist… He enjoyed really provoking my uncle… Maybe he was being provocative… but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.
“He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naivete.
via Lennon was a closet Republican: Assistant | World | News | Toronto Sun.
Boy, you right-wingers can’t stop yourself, can you? Now you people want to claim John Lennon as one of your own? Seriously? The words of one ‘assistant’ is hardly proof and despite his anger at Jimmy Carter and certainly after Reagan’s many small wars and terrible economic policies… I doubt very much Lennon would have become one of your kind. – captfoster
It is to laugh! The first laughable thing about the Toronto Sun article is that it was indeed published by the Toronto Sun; a neocon tabloid; the second is that they would twist secondhand hearsay from a disgraced thief (more on that in a moment) – about Lennon personally liking Reagan but not Carter into a ‘Lennon Was A Closet Republican’ headline; the third laughable thing is the assumed credibility assigned to the ignominious Fred Seaman, who would have gone to prison in 2002 for his wholesale thefts of valuables and memorabilia from his former employers, the Lennons, had Yoko Ono not let him off the hook so long as he returned whatever stuff that he hadn’t already sold – which was pretty much everything that wasn’t nailed down. Ever since, this liar and thief has turned up like a bad penny every time there’s a — well, bad penny – to be made. The worst part of this disposable non-story is the 68 pages (and counting) of hostile, demented Left vs Right invective volleyed back and forth beneath the article in the Sun’s comments section. The anonymity of the Internet feeds the hollow pseudo-courage of every witless nonentity on both extreme ends of the political spectrum, guaranteeing that civil discourse will remain a thing of the past. Online venues should have a separate comments section for nuts and haters of all stripes; you could only post a comment there if your Caps Lock key was permanently locked in the ON position.