New Song 'Lucy' Helped Julian Lennon Forgive His Father

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    Julian LennonJulian Lennon's new song, 'Lucy,' bears a familiar name to Beatle fans. Indeed, the song, co-written with James Scott Cook, was partially inspired by his childhood friend, Lucy Vodden, the same woman his father John Lennon made famous in 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.'

    For Lennon to be able to musically embrace his past is a big step. "I had to be very much at a certain point in my life to be able to accept this and feel it was right to do it now," he tells Spinner. "As many out there know, for a long time I wouldn't say that I shunned dad or the Beatles, but I certainly side-stepped them and wanted to carve my own path, so to speak."

    That he is ready to do this is an even bigger victory for him personally. "I think it was coming to terms with a lot of issues I felt I needed to deal with," he says. "I went through quite a few issues with dad."

    Those problems have been well documented. After the elder Lennon left Julian's mother Cynthia for Yoko Ono, the couple moved to New York, leaving father and son largely estranged for years. The messy divorce that ensued only strained the relationship further, and John's parenting efforts focused on Sean, his younger son whom he fathered with Ono.

    Adding insult to injury, Lennon had stated in interviews that Sean's birth was planned, whereas Julian's was not. Though the two went for years without speaking, Julian and his father reconciled shortly during his brief relationship with May Pang, before John was tragically gunned down by Mark David Chapman in 1980, just a few years later.

    Although the pair reconnected for a short time before John's death, Lennon admits truly forgiving his dad was something that he's only recently come to understand with age. "There's only so much bitterness and anger one can carry in life without it taking you to the grave. It was time for me to grow up in many respects," he says.

    Songwriting, which he calls "a cathartic experience," has helped him come to grips with his past, particularly on his forthcoming 2010 album 'Everything Changes.' "One has to reach a point of forgiveness -- and I'd done that, but I hadn't really taken it to heart for a long time. It's only in recent years and probably partially through the writing of this album."

    The song -- which is a benefit for Lupus, the same disease that afflicted Vodden and Cook's grandmother, also named Lucy -- also helps keep this 40-year-old story alive.

    "I guess you could say it's quite poignant 'cause it's bringing to light for future generations the whole history of where this came from and why I'm doing what I'm doing now," he says, regarding the charity aspect of the song. "It's a great, honest and true story -- it's like passing a story down to your children or grandchildren, except in my case it seems to be the world."

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