Sean steps out of the shadows

Oct 12 2006 By Kate Mansey, Liverpool Echo

Sean is keen to follow in his father’s footsteps and make a music career for himself but he insists on doing it off his own back, rather than trading on the family name.

Yet at the same time the songwriter is torn between wanting to start afresh and being conscious not to ignore his parentage.

He says: “A lot of people think that I try to avoid my dad or The Beatles thing but I’m not trying to distance myself from any of that. If it hadn’t been for The Beatles I wouldn’t be writing music – they inspired me.

“It’s my family, it’s where I come from and The Beatles are the reason I grew up to be a musician.

“I love the Beatles, but I would be lying if I said I have a favourite Beatles song.

“Then again I would be lying if I said I had a favourite colour or a favourite book – there are so many that I love.”

His most recent record, Friendly Fire, sprang from a tragic relationship Sean had with actress Bijou Phillips, daughter of John Phillips from The Mamas and Papas.

The couple split after she slept with his best friend, Max Le Roy, who died in a motorbike crash last year.

“I was writing about the end of love and the end of everything,” he says. “I called it Friendly Fire because I thought it was an oxymoron that was a good metaphor for when people who love each other hurt each other.

“But my songs – they’re not documentaries, they’re not a memory of reality because songs are fantasies. Real life inspires me but there’s definitely a lot of dream and illusion in it as well.”

Despite what he went through with Bijou, the pair are still friends and she even starred in one of the short films that he made to accompany the album.

Sean says simply: “Of course we’re friends. I don’t like burning bridges.”

Sean Lennon plays Liverpool Stanley Theatre on November 4. For box office call: 0151 256 5555 or www.ticketline.co.uk