The Worst of the Best Podcast

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good morning hello Ryan how are you good how are you this morning very good very good
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nice and early got my coffee how about you I've already drank my two cups I've been up for a
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bit are we talking about Entourage today why do you say Entourage it was on the screen oh oh yeah it's my TV screen
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saver flipping around do you want me to turn it off okay no no I was just wondering were you a fan of Entourage i'
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I've seen everything yes I I I loved it I loved the show yeah I did too I did too we get judged pretty harshly for
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liking that that sort of thing though don't we well we do yeah yeah it's sort
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of like a frat boy bro kind of show you know what I mean it is but the show of
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itself is a mockery of itself that's the whole point and that's what you would always say to the haters you know what I
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mean like oh you just don't get it you don't get it it was funny turtle and Johnny and yeah I loved it I loved it
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yeah yeah I liked it as well I really did and it has some beautiful actresses on it too which didn't hurt I didn't the
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mov have Ronda Rousey is that who the movie had in it I think so as turtles
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love interest that one that sort of like jumped the shark for me that was very
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unrealistic so how are things in Florida oh very good with the exception of not being able to use my beautiful pool and
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my be beautiful beaches they're there and they're still beautiful I guess you take what you can get you know nobody's
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breaking the quarantine rules or anything or are they lifted yet or relaxed they they're easing them but
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individual HOAs and things like mine still won't reopen certain things I
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think the beaches are partially open for exercise and I don't know what Canadians
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perspective on this is but where would you rank exercise as like top 10 things
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that you do on a beach I don't know where I'd put exercise you know yeah you see in the movies and stuff i' certainly
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the California I know at least what I've seen the movies and TV shows they have like exercise gym equipment facilities
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at a beach you know near the water oh you're thinking like Venice Beach yeah yeah like Muscle Beach that kind of
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thing not not as much in my part of Florida maybe down by Miami yeah it doesn't appeal to me uh I don't lift
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weights uh I do go for runs I love running by Nature so definitely if if I had lived in a place where I could run
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beside the beach I would do it for sure I can't remember the last time I tried to run on Sand well you know you can do
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it in Rocky 3 you've seen that right certainly not as many times as you
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no no no I [Music] know welcome to the worst of the best
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podcast you wanted the best well they didn't freaking make it so here's what
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you get from Canada and Florida Ryan and Drew
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Applause] [Music] welcome to the worst of the best podcast I'm your host and with me today is
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longtime returning guest host Drew from Florida how you doing brother good to speak with you again I was just
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wondering so podcast that we do I don't hear a lot about it on the shows that I'm not on what what's going on with
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that what do you mean it's just radio silence I have no idea what's going going on with Ryan uh and then you know
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I'm on a show so obviously that one's a big hit and everyone's talking about it and then a couple weeks go by and I
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don't hear about it so so so tell me what's been going on with Ryan oh I see because we only interact while we uh
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co-host together you just only really uh enter my sphere or sort of into my Orbit
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when I'm right here with you well that's true but you know I talk to you more than a lot of family
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so even with those breaks in between episodes so I do appreciate you coming on Drew and
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you're always a sport to come on with it whatever topic I throw at you you're always like y let's do it let's get to go and I try to give you more notice
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than say the YouTube One well we have a sort of a variety of
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different shows that we've talked about in a variety of different uh heads up that I was given yes well this one we're
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talking about John Lennon today so we're talking about maybe some unpleasant or not
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popular or not the greatest things to be known for facts about John lenon before we talk about John do you have any kind
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of affinity or love for the Beatles as a band yeah sure not really on top of
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their entire discography but uh I don't know how you can just sort of like live in the culture that we have and not
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understand both their songs and their influence in the music realm and then just as part of being a celebrity you'd
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have to be living under a rock I think is the expression I love the Beatles in the in the way that somebody my age like
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I'm 44 obviously I wasn't around in the 60s when they were at the Zeitgeist of their life but yeah you'd have to be
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living under a rock there's some great songs some uh they they're actually as I was doing the research or looking into
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John Lenin here it kind of occurred to me there's a lot of books to read and stuff like that I would like to look more into their history because I enjoy
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history I enjoy celebrity history and as I was looking at some of these things I personally didn't know about John and
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what he was maybe not well known for or some of the his less popular known facts
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about him I was like I would like to read more about this and kind of investigate in depth uh why these things
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are known about John but for me things I knew about John Lenin is you know of
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course he was shot in 1980 he was um you know peaceloving circle glasses wearing long
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hair married to yokono all those normal stuff that we kind of know about JN and that he was you know kind of the Pretty
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Boy of The Beatles and the young days he was between him and Paul it seemed like there was a bit of a push and pull for
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leadership in the band both were lead singers very basic stuff that I know about John linon even amongst fans
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people were kind of like are you are you John are you are you John team or Paul team I think that's pretty common
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doesn't that sort of like resurrect itself I can remember growing up and I'll just put myself right in that time
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the boy bands of the late 90s okay you wanted to love Justin but then if you
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were a little counterculture as a 12-year-old you were trying to convince people that Lance or JC were the better
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of the bunch I don't think anyone went so far as to claim that Chris Kirkpatrick had the skills of that group
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you get into these musical things and once they become so big you know that they're sort of a front man but there
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are four other people or three other people in this instance so you know sort of pick your plan b or pick your
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alternative favorite so in this instance yeah if you picked me who's my favorite
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out of the Beatles I wouldn't say John lennen but I think going through different eras of their fandom John
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lenon was undisputably the front man for many many years until the sort of split happened so what we're going to do is
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we're going to break down 10 unpleasant facts about John Lennon and as we speak
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to it we recognize that if anyone listening is a huge John lennin fan and thinks that what we're saying is unheard
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of or unsounded or not fact check that's fine please add us on Twitter or on our Facebook page and let us know where we
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were wrong we are not John Lenin experts you can take it for yourself how true or
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not true it might be we're not trying to be biased towards this we're just saying these are things that John's known for I
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Ryan hey I'm not perfect I'm sure people can come up with 10 unpleasant facts about me but the difference between me
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and John is is nobody idolizes me and I never claim to be kind of a peac loving Saint or put up as one in the public as
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a culture I sometimes think we kind of like tearing our Idols down and maybe that's always been the case even from
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olden times you know when they you know down the coliseums and kind of shaking their fists at the Greek gods it's human
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nature to kind of tear down your own Idols this isn't to find fault in somebody cuz we're all human but there
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are some things that you know how should I say this not talking about John lenon
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but let's talk about OJ for a second the thing is he was a great football player and he was actually quite funny in the
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Naked Gun films but it's kind of wildly known or suspected at least that he got
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away with murder just because you can be good at something and just because you can be uh well-liked for something we're
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complicated as humans there's things about OJ that aren't very nice and we can talk about those on maybe on the
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podcast the 10 worst things about OJ but John in some ways has kind of gotten away with murder in a sense of his
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legacy because he's so wildely loved as a peace Nick hippie right that maybe his
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life wasn't quite as peaceful and kind and yeah let's get into it you want to
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get behind the scenes you want to find out who is the person behind the hero or
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the person behind the celebrity so a lot of these facts and things are actual
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facts about the man that did not rise to public awareness until but probably
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later in his life or postmortem during John Lennon's life he was the mythical
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character that was sort of created by the media and himself and his promoters
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and that sort of thing if you're going to see a concert you want to know what song they're going to sing you don't
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necessarily need to know like what the front man did yesterday unless it was right one of those
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songs So you you're concerned about what is the content that I'm going to get from this person and what is the
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experience and then who is the man that's giving me that experience well that's a different question so the first
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fact about John lenen I would say was unfortunately unsurprising that may be
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the case with several of these so I won't say it every time just to preface John Lin was a man that was born in 1940
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he rose to prominence in his 20s and into his 30s he only lived to be 40 he
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was a person of his era he was a person of his age at the times that he did these things and obviously became very
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famous very young in life as a lot of musicians do so number 10 on our list is
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a fact that has been admitted by John linen himself and that is the fact that he engaged in spousal abuse he was a
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wife beater to both of his wives both his first wife Cynthia who he was
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married to during the early early years of The Beatles Fame and then his eventual second wife Yoko Oham I didn't
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need to get into any of the dirty uh little secrets about this or or prove anything this was admitted by John Laden
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life that he would get into fits of rage and uh would uh strike his spouse I know
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what we divided up this list as I sometimes do when well actually as I usually do with you is I don't research
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or look into the ones that you covering I just want to hear your take on it on the air
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so to speak hearing this I I saw the headline that you know he was he he beat his wives physically abused his wives
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but I didn't read about what he did or didn't do like to what extent I mean there's no there's no like one hit bad
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as a thousand and I know what you're saying he was kind of a product of his time a little bit when our fathers or
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parents were children back in the day in the 40s and 50s and 60s even if you said
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hey Charlie's dad spanked me when I was over there playing parents back then would have been like well what did you
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what did you do wrong you know that was very common back then like literally adults could have
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could have smacked a kid for giving lip or being disrespectful in their house and a parent wouldn't have gone over so why'd you hit my kid they would have
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been like well you were acting up if an adult found the need to spank you you were probably acting up as a child now
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we're more enlightened and woke as a culture that we just don't hit neighbors kids we you know we just let the parent
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know know hey your kid U Drew over my walls uh we don't do that in my house can you tell them not to do that yeah so
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he was a bit of a product of his time but unfortunately spousal abuse still happens and I suspect that whether
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you're celebrity or the drags of uh Society physical abuse on children and
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spouses unfortunately still happens today in 2020 so though so though he
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might have been a product of his time enough that he could actually admit it and still be John lenon kind of tells you something a little bit but yeah he
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smacked woman around and that's to me pretty disgusting Behavior a lot of instances with celebrities that were
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around at this time if you would find this out you would be both shocked and
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horrified but then you would be correct to say that they weren't the only ones
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doing this engaging in this Behavior like you said there was a time in global
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culture I suppose since we're not speaking of a certain country in in any instance here right I'm from America
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you're from Canada he was from England but still we can admit that there was a time when force was more accepted and
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less frowned upon and every year since that time it has become less acceptable
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and more frowned upon both with spouses and with children you never hear about a man who engaged in spousal abuse that
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didn't lose his temper or lose his cool or go into a fit of rage I I don't
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understand how that makes it any better or any more explanatory uh I certainly don't want to hear any stories about
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like yes I engage in spousal abuse and I only did it when I was in a cheerful mood hear these sorts of additional
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excuses like I lost my temper do we think it's okay to lose your temper no we don't think that that's cool either
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this was a guy who's just did what a lot of guys did in the 60s I suppose once it was exposed he took a bigger hit for it
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because he was a more famous person to kind of bleed into from number 10 to number nine same kind of well same kind
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of Behavior resentment anger whatever the reasons are he was emotionally abusive to his son so at the very least
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I don't know if he struck his son Julian his son that he had with Cynthia his first wife this was very public as well
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here's some examples of how he was emotionally abusive to Julian uh there was one time that Julian giggled as a
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child will do and Lennon shouted back I hate the way you effing laugh imagine how self-conscious you would be every
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day of your life after you heard that your father hat hat the way that you laugh I don't I don't know anyone that
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can control the way that they laugh and to hear your father just smack it down like that
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that's too much that's too much so following John Lennon's murder in 1980 Julian lennin voiced anger and
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resentment towards him saying I've never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me there was some very
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negative stuff talked about me like when he said I'd come out of a whiskey bottle on a Saturday night stuff like that you
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think where's the love in that Paul McCartney and I used to hang about quite a bit more than Dad and I did we had a
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great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at the age than there
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are pictures of me and my dad he goes on to say I have to say that from my point of view I felt John my father was a
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hypocrite Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who
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supposedly met the most to him his wife and son how can you talk about peace and
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love and have a family in bits and pieces no communication he committed adultery divorce you can't do it if
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you're not being true and honest with yourself another side note here is Lennon Julian was excluded from his
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father's will he only received $100,000 trust fund that was created by his father that he had to share with his
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half brother Shawn but Julian and I'm glad he did sued his father's estate in '96 and he reached a settlement of 20
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million you know as we get older and even as Julian got older he said here by
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2009 Lennon's feelings Julian's feelings toward his father had mellowed considerably recalling his renewed
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contact with his father in the mid-70s he said dad and I got on a great deal better then we had a lot of fun laughed
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a lot and had a great time in general my memories of that time with Dad and Mary
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are very clear they were the happiest that I can remember with him now they're the happiest he can remember but a young
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child to experience that kind of emotional and neglect and to see the family torn apart by the father it's
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going to affect somebody for many years as we sometimes do and I've noticed this uh in my personal life and even within
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myself cuz I'm 44 now so yeah I'm four years older than John and I've been a parent like I've actually been a parent
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myself since 1998 and I'm still currently a parent in 2020 like meaning
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I have like 5-year-old or soon to be six-year-old twins now so because I've had two marriages but I've been a parent
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for 22 years and I can say that I'm a I
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don't know if I'm a better father necessarily or I'm just older or a bit of both but as we get older things that
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angered us things that upset us things that caused us pain the way we react
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today to the same maybe types of events we didn't act the way we did in our 20s
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and I suspect John was the same as a father for his first child as they got
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older and as people do when they get older and their brains form differently we get a little bit calmer we can get a
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little bit more mellow and we get a little bit more forgiving so it was nice to see that at least Julian could uh bury the anger in
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his heart a little bit but still he has the pain of that was his childhood which sucks cuz you that will never not be
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taken away from him that he had a sucky childhood that he didn't have a relationship with his father like he
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doesn't care that his dad's in the Beatles he just wants a dad right right this seems like something that happened
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to families during this time period and previously you seen at least in the
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media and in depictions of this time you see this sort of very popular man
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probably with a very important job he feels the need or he feels that he has
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to separate himself from his actual family in order to service the world or
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service the company that he works for in order to really tap into this talent
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that He has he has to give himself to the world rather than be with his family
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he's ascended beyond the family and the family is going to have to deal with that because their father is more than
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just a father to this family he's a global Superstar I I just sort of see it
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time and time again with men during this time period and previous there's this thing that he's got to do and it's much
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much more important than just being a dad a dad is something that you would do if you didn't have major music Talent
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some celebrities are able to handle being a parent very well and being a celebrity I think as we get through our
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list there's a there's a couple down the line here which maybe speaks to John's
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true intent of being a celebrity when we'll get to that so maybe being a parent wasn't on his priority yeah which
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takes us into number eight is a combination of things that John did
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during his life that make people believe that he may have been something of a pathological liar now when it comes to
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being a famous figure in the 1960s you could get away with doing and
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saying certain things that could not be fact checked in John's rise and trying
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to create this character that the world would latch on to and buy a bunch of records from he essentially created what
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was his backstory out of whole cloth and that includes certain things about him
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John lynen the person that just were not true but he still sold it to the world
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because either they could not find out the truth and prove him wrong or if they did it just would not matter so John
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linen told a couple of lies in his life that sort of stick out for one he
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claimed that he had been a working class kid from Liverpool in actuality he had
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sort of a comfortable middle class upbringing he also denied being married
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during those early years to that woman Cynthia while he was becoming the sort
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of Pop sex icon you don't want to hear that that guy's married so he just sort
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of passed off that he wasn't married later in the career of The Beatles he
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made up a couple of lies about why he was leaving the Beatles he blamed it on Paul McCartney and trying to move the
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band in a certain direction in actuality John linen was struggling with drug drugs and he really needed to get out of
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the band that's a different sort of a lie it's sort of like what are your motives and maybe there were two motives
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maybe he was addicted to drugs and Paul was trying to point them in a different direction you pick the one that works
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best for you and so that sort of thing he claimed when he came back into the
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public eye later in life he he made a couple of claims about what he had been doing in that time off so he claimed
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that he had been baking bread and staying at home that's a little bit weird during this
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pandemic aren't a lot of people staying at home and baking bread Ryan yeah yeah that's true they're just pulling a John
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linen they don't even know it in actuality what was John linen doing during that time drugs he was doing a
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lot of drugs right so the sort of Public Image and this not entirely surprising
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wouldn't be shocked if there were celebrities today that were still sort of trying to pass off a certain sort of
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image about who they were before they were a celebrity I think about Lana Del
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re I I just want to throw that one out there she's been caught lying about her image and trying to cultivate certain
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things I don't even know if people really care anymore one why would you do that everything is pretty easy to be
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fact checked these understand the very basic motivation behind doing that that
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you're trying to create a character that is not you and that character is the one that's doing all the art so what are
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your thoughts about John linen the pathological liar color to me not surprised exactly I hate to say this if
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you you know hate your wife and emotionally neglect your child and it seems like from what I understand he he
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always had like something different on the go than what was going on yeah I was very surprised as I looked into some of
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these allegations towards towards him as a human found it very surprising but I couldn't find anything that discredited
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what we've looked into and so his lying sure you know he's trying to create an
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image for himself and he's looking out for himself and I wonder who the real John lennin is I think a lot of people
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would ask that question and and there's been so much investigation into this man
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he was the most famous man on the planet for something like a decade or something like that my question would be of his
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bandmates do we know of any instances of Paul Ringo and George making up who they
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were sort of framing their life in this sort of way have you ever heard anything like that
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I was going to say one of our episodes will have to be his Paul McCartney the real Paul McCartney well okay so you hit
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that you hit that there I know about that conspiracy and that one is very interesting to me it's fascinating at
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the end of the day the thing about conspiracy theories whatever you want to call them I I I don't even like the term conspiracy theory alternative stories uh
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alternative stories we've done Conspiracy Theory episodes on this podcast and I've always said at the end
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of the day even if none of them are true I've always admired the ability to take something and run with it and to and
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actually within the conspiracy theory narrative to make it make sense enough that I can see why you're saying what
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you're saying I find that admirable and fun it doesn't mean I believe everything I hear I'm just saying I find it
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enjoyable to look into those to go down those rabbit holes to be honest with you the Paul McCartney one is a fascinating
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Story the mixture of real clues that are there for you yourself as
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a human to see like The Backwards lyrics and the clues in the albums and all these other things and the facial
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changes the pictures of the one Paul versus the picture of the other Paul it's fascinating because you can see
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that with your physical eyes now there might be all explained in one way but the story of how they're not explained
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that go into the conspiracy theory part is a fascinating Rabbit Hole what do the
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other Beetle members say about themselves or I'm sure they have stories and that would be a fascinating thing to
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to look into that doing this research this very little research on John Lenin here there's some books I want to read
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there's some fascinating history here that I think would be very fun to read about this band I completely agree just
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sort of being like a fringe Beatles listener or awareness this exercise and
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this podcast has made me you know want to know more and maybe see some of the many movies that were made about John
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lenen the one about his death with Jared Leto or read these books because this was a man that people TR tried to put
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their finger on this was a man that people tried to figure out they put a lot of effort into it he was a little
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bit dodgy along the way he is an interesting man you can't deny that he might be a good man bad man best beetle
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ever worst beetle ever you cannot deny that he's interesting yeah absolutely one of the biggest things that people
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don't like about Jon especially if you are a Beatles fan is his relationship with Yoko Ono the kind of downward
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spiral between the Yoko Ono and him and the drugs to the late 60s and that is
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that he broke up the Beatles that John himself broke up the Beatles not just Yoko that is again something that is
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pretty much understood that he kind of wanted out he wanted to do his own thing
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and he wanted to go solo Yoko pushed him out I think helped with that whispering
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in his ear Yoko Ono I can't find anything redeeming about her I find I
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find her as a as a celebrity that's all I'm saying as a celebrity or as a musical person she bugs me I
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always wondered what Jon's life would have been like had Yoko on or never
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existed sure sure the one that's pushed him into those kind of strange things
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yeah well they did these weird uh albums experimental albums called unfinished music volumes 1 and two the first one
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was called two virgins it was more known for its cover than the actual quote unquote songs inside cuz I was with both
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Yoko and John naked on the cover who unfinished music number two life with the Lions and wedding album these are
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three albums that were just critically hated by fans and and critics he was
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addicted to heroin at the time and here's a very telling thing here though the band renegotiated their contract uh
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with the record company and John was already kind of on the way out to wanted to do his solo stuff but he promised not
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to tell the media or anyone that he was going to go solo I think the idea with the Beatles was they were going to maybe
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continue without JN there might have been some sort of discussion about that which in hindsight it wouldn't have worked anyways as much as John might
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have been who he was you can't have the Beatles without John lennin in 1969
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September John lennin agreed not to inform the media while the group renegotiated the recording contract
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however John was outraged that McCartney publicized his own departure releasing his debut soul album in April 1970 and
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check this out so Lennon's reaction was and this is him quoting he said uh he gets all the credit for it
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so look at him getting mad about this he later wrote I started the band I disbanded it it was as simple as that so
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he admits that he did it he admits that he disbanded the band he goes on to say
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uh I Was a Fool not to do what Paul did which was use the departure to sell a
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record he's both a megalomaniac and on his high horse he was mad that Paul
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thought of the idea of like yeah we're no longer the be and I got a solo album and John's like hey I thought I was you know hey I'm I was going to do that I
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was kind enough not to do it and you get you did it I wanted to sell the records I wanted to I disbanded the band I'm
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going to be the solar artist that everyone loves so even in the band's breakup there's a competition between
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Paul and John about who's the better solo artist if the band broke up because he was on a bunch of drugs well you know
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maybe he was on a bunch of drugs when he did these interviews because he sounds like a crazy person whether or not he
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did break up the band to go out there and take credit for breaking up band I don't know what the image was supposed
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to be there but again he was always sort of cultivating this thing so I'm sure in his head he thought this is going to
29:14
make me a bigger deal if I take credit for doing this thing no one else could do this thing The Beatles were bigger
29:20
than Jesus so how could any one man destroy that well this one man did just
29:27
makes him seem power power ful or something that might have been what he was going for maybe he didn't know how to keep a band together but maybe he
29:33
knew stuff about the political world do you have any idea about that uh number six is an allegation that of all the bad
29:40
things that John lenen did one of them was he was politically clueless now this
29:47
indicates that John linen tried to get into politics in the 70s he garnered a
29:52
reputation of being a political activist in the 60s basically because he allowed himself to have his picture taken with
29:58
other people that were political activists so he sort of put himself in that realm just sort of by rubbing
30:04
elbows and okay again sort of the image that he was trying to create he's going to stand next to I don't know Mother
30:11
Teresa and and let people think that maybe he's added a little mother teres to him that's just something that people
30:18
did back then and they still do today just to sort of get that rub in terms of what he did a lot of people that were
30:25
actually in political activism saw him as a poser yeah that's what we used to sa the time in the 80s here in
30:32
Canada very big word in the in the early 90s use it you'd use it just about any
30:39
any way you wanted to slander somebody call them a it's a great work it's actually a great word because it means just what you think it means you know
30:45
you're pretending to be something you're not you're OPP poser yeah I love it it's a great word absolutely of the things
30:51
that he actually did none of them are really to be proud of uh John lenon was known for giving money to groups like
30:58
the Black Panthers yeah that was actually a really well-received Marvel movie I
31:04
believe wakanda forever my friend yeah so he helped budget so he helped budget
31:10
that film good for him okay John lenen is the person that gave the money to the the country of wakanda so that they
31:16
could develop the vibranium technology everyone knows that it's always been that way no but the Black Panthers were
31:23
like a militant Pro African-American group here in in the states I don't know
31:29
if they were ever International but more or less what they were known for is uh staging rallies and not being pacifists
31:38
actually intimidating white people I think people at the time would say but
31:43
these black panthers were trying to Garner awareness and Garner strength for uh a civil rights movement in their own
31:50
way I don't know if John lenen giving money to them is a bad thing or something to not be proud of but it does
31:57
not fit with John Lyon's peace Vibes You could argue he's definitely he's Against
32:03
Racism so he's probably you know wants to fund a group that's challenging
32:08
improper treatment I mean yes racism and violent Behavior towards any Creed
32:14
religion sexuality yes we should not hurt people and be violent in our protests so I think peaceful protesting
32:19
is is the key so I think what you're saying is the Black Panthers maybe they weren't the most peaceful protesters
32:25
against uh inequality that's what I say I'd say of what I know here in in
32:30
America if you're going to support a civil rights movement and you give money to the Black Panthers but not to the
32:37
NAACP I think you're sending a a message one of them is doing things sort of
32:43
within some guidelines and another one is sort of trying to break down barriers and break down walls and and being very
32:49
aggressive about it maybe as opposer as a political poser maybe John linen was
32:55
not carefully cultivating where he was putting his money he's got this peaceful
33:00
loving agenda and then he's not paying attention to all of these groups that he
33:05
might fund do they fit into that agenda as well like was is his portfolio lined up kind of thing all right number five
33:13
this is probably the most controversial thus is probably the most subjective of
33:18
the ones we've done so far because this deals with him just as a musician okay so there are people who consider yokono
33:25
an artist again we'll use her example they consider what she does music and art and I'm sure she has her fans and
33:32
her uh people that love her but I listen to yokono and I want to gouge my ears out with a pen you don't get it Ryan no
33:38
I'm an idiot I don't get it it's pretty well known that John himself was you know an average guitar player he could
33:45
find mostly the basic Rhythm Parts he his piano playing wasn't that much better he wrote some very well-known
33:52
songs mind you but not as many as Paul George Harrison was W Wicked guitar player for the record he's my favorite
33:58
Beetle cuzz I like George's personality I I love his quietness and and I love his musical Talent we know that Paul's a
34:04
great bass player great guitar player he's obviously very talented his uh post Beatles music tells you that Paul's no
34:12
slouch when it comes to making music same with same with George even Ringle star is a very talented musician I think
34:18
of the musical ability and with the products they they did Outside The Beatles JN does rate last I think if you
34:25
were to tally up all the work of the post beetal work of quality John is last
34:32
and I don't even think that's that subjective I think you just look at the quality of songs and the music and
34:37
experimental stuff just means chaos I I don't I don't know what that means John swore that his experimental music will
34:44
speak to you and it'll bring you to some sort of what zen-like thing if you listen to it go ahead and go on YouTube
34:49
You'll see if you feel Zen or at peace with the world listening to that stuff all the more power to you he had almost
34:55
nothing to do for example with the sergeant pepper most of what came after was by everyone's Mission largely at the
35:00
behalfs of Paul McCartney for example by the end as you can see in the film Let It Be McCartney was desperately trying
35:06
to motivate a Lenin who simply didn't want to be there can you name a single track from or sometime in New York City
35:14
never heard of it well there you go again there's John lenon fans out there who might be listening to this episode
35:19
who are screaming at their iPhones right now or listening to us and I that's fine we're not subject matter experts I know
35:25
I'm not and I'm not that familiar with John's post Beetle work but that maybe
35:30
speaks to it like I'm more familiar with George Harrison's and Paul McCartney's work and I know that they were well
35:35
loved by many people musically I think this is a subjective one at the end of the day that maybe everyone thinks JN is
35:42
the most talented but I think objectively we could probably argue for musical ability the ability to play an
35:49
instrument and write a good song he might rank last in the Beatles quite frankly and doesn't that make sense you
35:55
think about either real bands that you youve seen or heard of and how it breaks down the front man is charismatic he's
36:04
the person that someone wants to see he may or may not have the talent there are
36:09
people that are doing the work for him that lift him up he's standing on their shoulders and eventually that sort of
36:17
thing does come to light in the early years they were just it doesn't matter if John lennen is the skilled one he's
36:23
the one that's getting people the butts and seats kind of deal see that acoss a lot of entertainment there's someone
36:31
with the skills they may not be the one that is uh the attraction there's bands
36:36
that I enjoy that are not nothing like the Beatles just some hair metal bands and rock and roll bands I grew up with
36:41
were some of the singers that went solo like the lead men the front men of this band they go solo and their solo efforts
36:48
were horrible they go back with the band so collectively as a bands most bands they get popular for a reason because
36:54
warts and all their combination somehow just makes it work sometimes when a guitarist or singer
37:00
leaves a band to do a solo effort you're kind of left wanting I think with the Beatles I think that actually is the case for all four members I think when
37:07
they all went solo it never nothing that they ever produced was the magic of The Beatles that's your measuring stick
37:13
though however who is the better musician and songwriter outside of the Beatles I think it's Paul and I think
37:20
John's at the end of it but none of what they did in my humble opinion measures
37:25
what the Beatles did together so warts and all and that includes Jon's personality and his warts and all and his lack of whatever yeah for whatever
37:32
reason the combination of the four of them even with the battles and the infighting they just produce some
37:37
amazing stuff it's just funny how that works it's the sum of the parts it is that's what it is I'll move on to our
37:44
next on the list this would be number four which is the instance that um John lenon is somehow thought of as a leader
37:52
he's thought of as someone that introduced the world to certain typ of
37:58
music and reinvented himself to sort of show us a lot of new things that we
38:04
didn't know about and this would just be in his style of music the early Beatles
38:09
sound some claim it was largely stolen stolen from an American R&B tradition
38:16
that already existed probably amongst African-American artists or primarily in
38:22
the American South to say that John linen invented that that would be sort
38:27
of mischaracterization later when the Beatles became more well known for a
38:34
different style of music it's pretty obvious that John lenen was trying to channel someone like Bob Dylan who
38:41
slowed things down made things that or maybe less radi friendly but had this
38:47
musical inspiration and people did like it it wasn't the pop stuff but it was a
38:54
bluesy rock and roll music people think John linen introduce that to the radio
38:59
or to the the charts he did not other people did that before him and then finally when he was doing I think his
39:06
solo stuff linen changed his style in that way but he wasn't the first one to do that either he was borrowing from
39:13
inspiration from like psychedelic California drug bands John lenen was not inventing new styles of music he may
39:21
have been able to access styles of music that were not Nationwide or globally
39:27
prevalent and then he borrowed those things and then passed them off as as it own that
39:33
happens all the time if you have a bigger platform then you can find these
39:39
sort of Inspirations that have not reached your level of success and just take a stab at pawning that off as your
39:47
own he's not the first person in music to do that and he certainly wasn't the last people sort of conspire against
39:53
Lennon when they say he was not the music genius that he passes himself off to be
40:00
which actually leads into number three a little bit what we talked about earlier with him being a bit of a poser there
40:06
was some argument that he was a bit of a conformist so despite his reputation of
40:12
being a freeth thinker and following quote unquote his own path he was desperately always trying to fit in to
40:18
fit into non-conformity is a form of Conformity if that makes sense because sure I don't believe in anything let's
40:25
say say I'm a nihilist or whatever whatever but that's a belief system to say you can't not exist when you're
40:31
existing to feel like Oh I'm a free thinker and I follow my own path and I don't conform to the government or the
40:37
rules of the world that's fine but that still is a form of a way to be that's
40:42
still just doing that which you want to do which is at the end of the day what you're all trying to do however though
40:48
there was some evidence throughout this that maybe as he was quote unquote not trying to fit in or try to be a free
40:55
thinker he found himself conforming at certain times like back in the day he had that Teddy boy look or where he
41:02
shows up with leather jackets and a pomor and then he had the cute pop look and then he had the Psychedelic hippie
41:08
thing and then he was the angry avanguard hipster maybe in his search of
41:13
non-conformity he kind of still found himself ending up being something that
41:18
almost like a different mask for every flavor of the day I know people like this you know people like this uh
41:24
hipster is still a thing the Counter Culture is a culture and so when you
41:30
find people that are hipsters and oh I don't like things just because other people like things I don't like things
41:36
just because the man tells me to like them well what do you find that they
41:42
find a party and everyone at that party is like them it's funny I see some of their outfits you know what I mean yes
41:48
and they're they're expensive they wear clothes and designer clothes I'm not saying that I'm maybe what JN wanted to
41:55
be but I I would say Counter Culture or culture but what I'm saying is you know
42:00
on Facebook when they show you like Memories on this day you did this on this day 6 years ago 7 years ago a
42:07
Facebook memory will pop up on that part of your Facebook feed there will be something for like 7 years ago or even
42:12
10 years ago and I'm wearing the same outfit on my person right now as I'm looking at this photo the thing is I
42:18
don't care that I don't care that I'm literally wearing the same shirt I wore 10 years ago maybe that's what John was
42:23
looking for is to be truly counter cultur in a sense is I don't know who the social influencers
42:29
are I don't know what's in style I just wear clothes I actually don't know my wife blessed her heart she buys me
42:34
clothes because I just don't John had more identities and more uh looks than
42:40
I've ever had in a 10-year period than I've had in 40 years think to yourself that person put a lot of effort into
42:47
looking like they didn't put any effort into it yeah they're think takes a lot of work to look like you don't care it
42:54
sure does it sure does you care so much much about not caring yes it it is
43:00
transparent I believe I really don't care because it's not till I see those pictures I'm like oh wow I am wearing
43:06
the same clothes I wore 10 years ago okay I think if John ly were around today there might be some eye rolling
43:12
some very very deserved eye rolling at a person like John lenon I will lead us
43:20
into number two number two on our list is just a general allegation that John
43:25
lennen was desperate from money and pain that he was everything that he did you
43:30
can boil it down to how does this make John linen more money and more famous
43:37
was he an artist was he an artist was he uh some sort of musical Legend was he a
43:42
genius or was he a musician who knew how to make himself rich and famous you can
43:50
go to different quotes that he made during uh the come up of The Beatles and
43:55
then at the end at the beginning of The Beatles he used to tell his bandmates
44:01
that the band was going to go to the toppermost of the popper most but it
44:07
sounds like he had some aspiration I think some people would look at what he was doing with Yoko as
44:15
publicity stunts and promotional Antics releasing music that no one likes and
44:21
doing the things that he did later in life before he was killed at the age of 40 you can look at those things and to
44:27
say this wasn't art this wasn't genius this was stunts and gimmicks that would
44:33
keep him in the Limelight because it's tough for anyone to stay in the Limelight for two decades like he did he
44:39
did the things that he had to do for attention to keep himself talked about number two kind of encapsulates
44:45
everything that we've been talking about how much of it is truly Jon trying to be something he's not as much as how will
44:53
this sell tickets number one actually really now encapsulates everything the
44:58
idea that John himself may have just been hypocritical his whole life between
45:03
the lying the image that he's trying to portray and this was one of the reasons
45:09
that John Lennon's murderer Mark David Chapman after he killed John Lennon
45:14
outside of his apartment and he told that his motive actually one of his primary motives for killing Jon was that
45:21
he was hypocritical he he as a fan maybe in his own Discovery being a fan of The Beatles
45:27
and and John this fan very obviously fanatical fan to the point that he
45:33
wanted to be known as a man that killed John but one of his bones to pick so to speak as as a killer was that this
45:39
artist or Idol or celebrity was so hypocritical that drove him to that angry motive that doesn't make it
45:45
acceptable but that's what he said really irked him as somebody who shot the man the evidence towards this is the
45:51
man who saying imagin no possessions of course lived in the Millionaire's life in a posh Hotel in New York the man who
45:57
saying imagine no religion was obsessed with every spiritual New Age fat that came his way including Hindu meditation
46:03
the iing and astrology of all kinds and the man who saying all you need his love was a bitter violent angry man who
46:10
abused his family and friends and the man who praised having nothing to kill or die for helped finance as you said
46:15
before and publicized radical groups who extoled the use of violence a lot of this from what we can glean from what he
46:23
said or sang about didn't necessarily but in a very cont you know very strict
46:29
contrast to the way he lived saying that someone's hypocritical is a tough thing
46:35
to provide evidence for be because I know I've said it with my children is like I teach my kids stuff you know I'll
46:41
say that your father has made mistakes and I've done things that I'm not proud of but I still have to teach you what I
46:47
think are is the moral compass that you need to live by now does that make me a hypocrite I don't know it makes me human
46:54
there's a difference between saying hey try to be a better person today or try to be calmer today or try to be more
47:00
loving today and if someone says well Ryan yesterday you you uh lost your temper you're a
47:06
hypocrite I don't think that's hypocritical I think that's just you trying to be a better person now you could argue maybe John was struggling
47:14
with himself maybe he maybe he recognized yes that he was living a Millionaire's life and he was just
47:21
trying to imagine no possessions but couldn't do it maybe he wanted to imagine no religion but it was unable to
47:28
do it imagine you know that he did spell that all you need is love and maybe he
47:33
believed that but he was incapable of doing it that's my argument against this
47:38
is that this was maybe somebody who was just strug struggling to find his own identity maybe this was somebody that he
47:44
wanted to be was but recognized that he was incapable of being this person that's certainly a favorable take for Mr
47:51
Lennon would be to say that you know these things that he would say or sing that stuff's ASP for AAL that stuff is
47:58
Pie in the Sky if every artist was held accountable for all of their songs and
48:06
does this song match up with how you actually live your life there would be
48:12
no music there would just be no music because you've got a band on their fourth album they've experienced some
48:19
success you know that they're all doing great how on Earth could they ever sing a sad song right how on Earth could they
48:26
ever claim to be the band that they were on album one we as fans have made this
48:33
band uh more successful and happier and richer and better in their lives and
48:39
then we complain that they changed we made them successful and success changed them we blame them for what we did to
48:46
them no artist could hold up to this scrutiny to call John L a hypocrite
48:51
because he sang a song once about not having money and then you found out
48:57
he has money I don't think that's what a hypocrite is I just don't think that's what a hypocrite is a hypocrite would be
49:04
something like being a proponent of peaceful tactics and then being very
49:09
very outfront about giving money to the Black Panthers I think that that's it I think that's more evidence there I think
49:15
that's more evidence there of a hypocrisy yeah yes now we should have said if you're a new listener of the
49:20
show and this is your first time listening to the podcast you're like what the what is the deal with these guys well what we do is we pick the wor
49:26
first from a list now this is I guess this kind of sounds terrible but this is the best evidence towards or the best
49:33
list of bad things about JN or or unpleasant facts about John lennin our
49:39
job is what we feel independently of each other I don't know your pick you don't know mine we're going to pick that
49:44
which we think is the worst quality that maybe John had or maybe we wouldn't want
49:50
to have ourselves so even if you just want to take it off of John and say fine let's just pretend all this is unfounded
49:55
stuff about John as a person this is how I'm going to do it what's something about me that I
50:01
would not the you know none of these things I would want to be but but I'll
50:06
say for example I don't really care that he broke up the Beatles you know what I mean like as a person like if I broke up a band that's not a I don't think it's a
50:13
moral crime against humanity to to have artistic differences and lastly the
50:18
hypocrite one for me that's a tough one to kind of prove or disprove because we as humans we try I think I think most
50:24
people try for the most part to not be bad people but we just make mistakes we fall short I think at the end of the day
50:30
we will say the right thing that we want to do the right thing but we might fall short of what we expect of ourselves or other people but I do have a pick I do
50:38
have uh a quality that I Ryan wouldn't want to have the John seem to have if
50:45
that's the way to say it do you want to run down the 10 real quick oh yeah please go ahead now like we've talked
50:50
about during the discussion a lot of these sort of bleed into each other a lot of these sort of lend themselves to each other I think that as we went
50:56
through the list they they built upon each other eventually became sort of more general or broad number 10 on our
51:03
list is that uh John linnen that he beat both of his wives he engaged spousal
51:08
abuse number nine on our list that he emotionally abused his son by abandoning
51:14
him sort of disowning him cutting him out of the will that's just the way that John lenon treated his son Julian uh is
51:22
number nine on our list number eight is the fact that John made up a lot of things about his personal past that made
51:28
a lot of people think that he may be a pathological liar at least when it comes to cultivating His image of who he is as
51:35
a person number seven is the allegation that John lenen actually is the one that broke up the Beatles number six is the
51:42
item that says that he was politically clueless and that he wanted to engage in political activities but he didn't
51:49
really have brain for it and he was sort of out of his element in the political realm number five is the allegation that
51:55
John lynon was actually talentless that he did not bring any actual skills or uh intelligence to The Beatles that he just
52:03
sort of rode that wave while the other members did the real work and the real art number four is the indication that
52:09
John lynon was not the leader that people think he is he was not the genius that invented different forms of music
52:15
that America and the world came to love but he actually borrowed those things from other pre-existing bands just stole
52:23
their music number three is the fact that John may have just been a Mindless
52:28
conformist that he was a bit of Opp poser that he did not invent a counterculture like some people think in
52:34
fact he just sort of fit in number two is indication that John lyard may have been just simply desperate for money and
52:41
fame that everything he did was sort of cultivated to you know gain attention and gain money for him and then number
52:47
one is was John lynon actually a hypocrite based off of the lyrics and his songs or the things that he did and
52:54
how he actually lived his life versus how he portrayed himself out of those 10 which is your pick I I had to start with
53:01
number 10 physically assaulting my wife yeah the one I was Tor between was being
53:07
emotionally abusive to my child I hate that I would have to choose between the two can't be physically abusive without
53:13
the emotional as well there's obviously emotional abuse behind the physical you you no one's smiling and kissing their
53:19
wife as they're punching them so there has to be anger if they did that would be emotional that'd be very confusing
53:27
yeah I'm trying to think of the way to say it where the day is going by normally yeah there's just no way you
53:33
can't you can't physically assault someone without an emotional response yeah at the end of the day the one I find the most disturbing I actually
53:39
didn't know I didn't know until this list the one that I knew about the Beatles of course I knew about his talent his abilities as an artist uh I
53:46
knew that he was kind of a bit of a you know I the Imagine song always kind of bugged me I always kind of knew about
53:52
some of his ju's position between his image and what he did but I I don't think I ever knew about his spous abuse
53:58
and the fact that he admitted it too I don't care about any of the excuses or anything he he should have known better
54:04
and somebody should have told him better this one Disturbed me the most absolutely Disturbed me the most and he
54:09
did to two different women that's right and you can only say it was a different time so many times yeah that doesn't
54:17
answer all the questions or sweep everything under the rug the 60s being a
54:22
half century ago wow a lot of things have Jam and then this is one of them is
54:28
so I think that in terms of egregious and just does not fit you can look at the other eight seven things on this
54:36
list and go yeah people still do that today people still do that today people are disingenuous about their about their
54:42
their lives today they cultivate images today they change their Styles and and
54:47
things like that they are not true to any sort of thing this is just part of being a pop star and maybe this is an
54:53
indication that like John lenen was one of the first modern pop stars is that he did all of these things that people do
54:59
today this list and everything on it makes me think John lenen was the first premier TV troubled leading man you
55:06
think about the Tony Sopranos the Walter whites the people that are on our televisions for the past 20 years these
55:13
complicated Leading Men that do these crazy but they're so charismatic and
55:19
you're drawn to them but they do these horrible things I feel like these stories that I'm hearing of John lynon
55:25
are like he was Don Draper and that's what really brings me back to that show madman is set in this era and Don Draper
55:33
did almost all of these things except beat his wife moving on to my pick I
55:39
struggled as well between emotional abuse and physical abuse and I fell on
55:45
the other side of the line I know that I made the argument for why men left their
55:52
families abandoned families why there were not present fathers you know what
55:58
might have gone into their mindset about why they did what they did the cognitive
56:04
dissonance that had to happen in these men to just lead their lives as if they
56:11
did not have families as if they how can you twist your brain to just go on tour
56:20
and forget that there's a child at home a child that relies on you for something
56:25
money support emotional attachment so number nine on our list is really really
56:31
tough for me I don't know if I've spoken about this before but I've done some work in Probate which is wills and
56:39
trusts John lenon to cut his actual full blood son out of his will absolutely
56:47
incredible I've seen it done and every time you see it done you just what could
56:52
have happened for this relationship between a father and a child child to sour so badly what could the child have
57:00
done to get cut out of a will and you see these and it's actually written in a will it's so cold and calculated it's I
57:07
want to make no bones about this this child is my child and they get nothing and I put this in writing and I sign my
57:14
name to it it's cruel I think there's cruelty and that's what separates it from a fit of rage where you beat
57:21
somebody you were angry there was a temper this man John lenen had to speak
57:27
with attorneys about what he wanted to do with his money all of his money and he had to say to these attorneys in a
57:34
calm several times he had to say do not give my son a scent that's cold you know
57:40
telling him that he laughs bet poorly that was a jerk and there's a lot of things on this list that make me think
57:47
John lenen was a jerk um the thing about cutting your son out of the will that's cruel that's mean leaves a bad taste in
57:55
my mouth so that's where I fall number nine the way that John treated Julian
58:00
what I like about this uh podcast that we do is hearing how your personal or
58:05
other co-hosts personal experiences or whatever might lead them to their decision if that Mak sense it's
58:11
interesting to hear especially in this as you working in the law field and what have you've seen this firsthand how that
58:16
has affected you and how this how this list then affects you because you're spelling that out of what a adult a
58:22
father parent the lengths they go to to cause further pain to their children it's uh I could just as easily say nine
58:29
as I could 10 yeah your arguments are very sound very sound something that struck me this was like number nine
58:34
wasn't my item I listen to you describe it and uh it just it hit me like a truck
58:39
I I I I did not think that this guy was that kind of guy now of course leaving a trust for him you know that's no small
58:46
pickings or whatever but trust have have these rules and you know he wouldn't get all that money immediately and the
58:51
trustee would take some of it and he had to share that I just it was it was a pit of an amount I mean John L he got
58:58
$100,000 come on you think John and he had a share that was Shawn so he got maybe 50 maybe 35 yeah I'm glad Julian
59:06
sued the estate and you got 20 million good good and that'll be my followup after this podcast I'm going to look
59:12
into that because it just interests me how how he got that I mean he got a settlement right so he did not like win
59:19
the case he just provided enough that maybe he he got his settlement as like a
59:24
go away you know got like he got like a nuisance payoff but it was much better than the trust he was left with so thank
59:31
you so much Drew for coming on and remember even in the world of The Beatles in front of every Silver Lining
59:37
there's a cloud and we're here to help you find that don't be like John be the person that he may be wanted to be
59:44
thanks for coming on Drew thank you talk to you soon [Music]
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