Yoko Ono has given a new interview revealing aspects of her childhood in Japan.
Despite being instantly recognisable Yoko Ono remains enigmatic. Her work remains largely unexplored by the wider public, despite her deeply influential contributions to visual art and music.
In a new interview Yoko Ono reflects on her childhood with her son Sean Lennon. The Japanese artist reveals that she had a troubled upbringing, with her family essentially disowning her.
Speaking to NPR the artist said: "I was born from my mother, who is a Yasuda, and my father, who is an Ono".
After explaining that she led a "very kind of outlandish life" the artist opened up about her privileged yet stifling background. "Yeah, well, you know, my father was a banker, but he was an independent spirit," Ono said. "He was a very good pianist and very much into music."
Continuing, Yoko Ono explained that her father was largely absent from her childhood. "It was big. And the time that I met him, my mother and my father were kissing, and I looked like this, like, 'Well, maybe he's going to kiss me too,'" she said.
"You know, the thing is, my mother was a beautiful, beautiful woman from a very rich family," she continued. "And my father — that just upset him, you know?"
Yoko Ono recently took part in events to celebrate the life of her husband John Lennon, who would have turned 70 last month. Playing a concert in the United States the singer was joined by a group containing her son.
For his part, Sean Lennon remembers a fraught upbringing which contained kidnapping threats. Driven to school in a limo, the young musician still found a way to subvert the rules.
"I would make the — well, maybe you don't know — but I used to make the limo driver stop two blocks from my school, so I could walk to school" he revealed. "Because everyone else took the bus, and you wouldn't let me take the bus. Because it was a dangerous time."
Read the entire article HERE.