Sean Ono Lennon feels closer to his dad when he listens to his old music.
Sean Ono Lennon believes music helped to fill a “void” in his life.
The 49-year-old musician – who is the son of Beatles star John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono – turned to making music as he struggled to come to terms with his dad’s death in December 1980.
Sean told PEOPLE: “I never played music because I was good at it.
“I lost my father and I didn’t know how to fill that void. Learning how to play his songs on guitar was a way to process the loss with an activity that made me feel connected to him.
“When you’ve lost a parent, things like that motivate you – because you’re trying to find them. Making music always made me feel like I was getting to know him better. “
Sean feels he’s got to know his dad even more intimately by listening to his music and watching archive footage of him.
The musician – who released his debut solo album, ‘Into the Sun’, back in 1998 – shared: “You’re constructing somebody out of fragments.
“I grew up mostly knowing my dad through pictures and recordings, because he wasn’t around.
“So whenever I hear my dad saying anything that I haven’t heard before, even just a little moment, it means so much to me. It’s like gold. It’s precious because it’s like getting more time with him.”
In 2020, Sean interviewed Sir Paul McCartney for a documentary called ‘John Lennon At 80’.
In the documentary, Paul shared his memories of meeting his former Beatles bandmate for the first time.
He said: “I look back on it now like a fan, how lucky was I to meet this strange teddy boy off the bus, who played music like I did and we get together and boy, we complemented each other!”
Music has filled a void in my life, says Sean Ono Lennon
