The Calm Before the Storm

Donovan, Jenny, Cynthia, Gypsy Dave, and Magic Alex in Greece, May of 1968. Little did Cynthia knew what was going on at home...

Serenade

 

Double Point

 

Name Switch-a-Roo

Julian at Jesse Street Studio Warehouse during a photo session on November 30, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Photographed by Robert Ascroft 

I already wrote a post explaining about John Charles Julian Lennon in 2018. Little did I know that two years later Julian switched his names around. In 2020, Julian legally changed his name from John Charles Julian Lennon to Julian Charles John Lennon. While I understand, and agree, with his reasoning, I personally think John Charles Julian had a better flow while saying Julian Charles John feels like a tongue twister. I'm sure eventually I (we?) will get used to it. I'm also kind of sad that both John and Cynthia aren't alive to know this. They both died knowing John Charles Julian and would never know the switch of John and Julian. I'm sure they would be okay by it, since Julian was known as Julian practically since day 1. 

Julian at Jesse Street Studio Warehouse during a photo session on November 30, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Photographed by Robert Ascroft 

In June of 2022, Julian revealed his name change in Smashing Interviews magazine. However, it got overlooked and ignored... I confessed that I did the same. 

"Another part of the story that I’m not sure I’ve mentioned before is that I had a real struggle because my given name was John Charles Julian Lennon. So going anywhere or going through airports or this and that, they’d only see John Lennon first. They wouldn’t necessarily know I was Julian. Most of them wouldn’t. They’d be quite smarmy about it or joke and say, 'Oh, aren’t you lucky having the same name?' or 'Are you related?' which wasn’t so bad. But there was a lot of anxiety with being called John and never really being seen as Julian. So in 2020, I finally decided to change my name. But I didn’t want to lose any of the names that my Mum or Dad gave me, so I just switched the John and Julian. I still have the Charles, who was my grandfather, whom I never met. But now, I’m legally Julian Charles John Lennon. So what people see first on any application or anything is Julian. So Jude was again showing me as myself as who I am today, what I’ve done, what I’ve achieved as an artist, as a writer and a producer. I feel very much that I am my own man, and I’ve built a very serious working foundation on many, many levels, and that cannot be taken away from me. So some people think I’ve been a hermit, but no, I’ve just not been on the camera in front of everything. That’s not a place I actually like to be really. I could be there sometimes to do certain things, but for the most part, let me be behind the camera. I’m happiest behind the scenes on most of the things that I do. I just try to be me these days, and that’s part of who I am."

Julian, 2022

Julian at Jesse Street Studio Warehouse during a photo session on November 30, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Photographed by Robert Ascroft 

In July of 2022, Julian was a guest on a podcast, Word in Your Ear, where he talked about his name change. This time around, this got picked up by many media outlets.

"It was in 2020, just before we all got locked in a cage that I finally actually decided to legally change my name by default. Because originally my name was John Charles Julian Lennon, and the crap that I had to deal with when traveling and security companies and this and that and the other. Whenever you had to present yourself, especially on like boarding passes, just as an example, you know they only use your first name, and so it would always be 'John Lennon, John Lennon. So I became quite fearful and anxious about those scenarios, because there would always be wise cracks or jokes, and most of the time people didn't even recognize me. So it became really uncomfortable over the years because I've always been known as Julian and so it never felt like it was me. So finally I just decided in 2020, 'Yeah, I wanna be me now. This is it, it's time for a change.' I want to respect the legacy and the wishes of my parents, but all I did was switch the 'John' and 'Julian' so I'm Julian Charles John Lennon. It's as simple as that, but for me, it's a whole other world, it really is. Not that I'm ashamed or have disrespect. I needed to be me. I needed to finally be heard as Julian. This is what Julian does, not 'John's son,' so that has been a part of the path and...it just made sense for."

Julian, 2022

Here's to Julian Charles John Lennon!