Al Weisel
Yoko Ono
By Al Weisel
US Magazine, December 1995, p. 111
Like Rodney Dangerfield, Yoko Ono never seems to get any R-E-S-P-E-C-T. But that's beginning to change. The 62-year-old musician is finally getting recognized as an artist in her own right, instead of as the woman who broke up the Beatles or as John Lennon's widow. Even Paul McCartney has had a change of heart. The two patched things up after a long feud, and Ono and her 20-yearold son, Sean, recorded a song with the exBeatle and his family called "Hiroshima Sky Is Always Blue," commemorating the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb. This month, Ono's releasing her first album of new material in 10 years, Rising, backed up by Sean's band, IMA. Inspired by her childhood experiences in Japan during World War II and by today's AIDS pandemic, it's as uncompromising and contemporary as anything she's ever done.
How was it making an album with your son?
We have a good relationship, and I didn't want to ruin that. But in fact it enhanced it, because now we're talking music. His friends are so now. I always think I'm the most now person, but—surprise, surprise—I had a lot to learn from them.
Where did your unique vocal style come from?
I had a Nagra [tape recorder], and it accidentally went backward. I picked it up from that. And Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck. In Wozzeck, there's sort of a drunken man going, "Whaa-ah-ah-oh... and I was very impressed with that.
Did you enjoy working with Paul, McCartney?
That was very good, actually. It was a nice surprise. With brothers and sisters there's always friction, but in our case it's magnified, and everybody is looking into it. And it's more fun when we fight. I must say I feel totally comfortable with his children. They're beautiful. I even said, "Well, you must have done something right."
Is there any criticism that really hurt you?
I could write a book about it. The lucky thing is that I had John with me, and [our relationship] was going pretty well. There were some problems we all go through, but basically I had a very loving, caring, protective and encouraging person with me. After John passed away and they still attacked me, I was alone, so that was worse. But I told myself that nothing can be worse than what happened with John passing.
1f you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I'd like to be a more forward person. A person who isn't a doormat. I think that's a trait most women are struggling with.
How do you think the Japanese feel about you?
I was a total black sheep there for a long time. I think breaking up the Beatles, marrying John, all the things that people were outraged about—of course I didn't break up the Beatles, that's a myth that, I think the Japanese took it very badly, too.
Tell me about something that happened to you in Japan during the war.
It was difficult to get food, so I decided to go to the next village. I found this farmhouse, and there was a pile of potatoes on the floor. I filled my knapsack with them—my knapsack was as large as I was—and it was so heavy I had to go two steps and rest, two steps and rest, all the way back to my village.
Do you have any guilty pleasures?
I like sweets. And thrillers. When I go to a movie, I ask, "Is it scary?" Half of the time I'm closing my eyes, so I don't know what happened. In the early days, when John and I traveled, I would take an Agatha Christie book with me, and he'd laugh at that.
We know who your favorite Beatle is. Who is your second favorite?
I'm not being diplomatic, but all of them have a tongue-in-cheek attitude, which I like, so it's difficult to say which one is my favorite. Of course, each one of them at one time or the other said something hurting about me, but I like them.■
Al Weisel is the co-author, with Larry Frascella, of Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause, being published in October 2005.