Life with the Lennons, fame, friendship, the FBI and the Lost Weekend – by Elliot Mintz.

Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them … … “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …” … how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment. … being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.  … how he heard the news of Lennon’s death. … booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’. ... the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days. … how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions. … abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.   … ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants. … “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”. … John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney. … “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”. Order Elliot’s book here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Shine-extraordinary-friendship/dp/0857506072Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.