A one time personal assistant to John Lennon has insisted that the former Beatle would have voted for Ronald Reagan.
The era of 60s radicalism soon dissipated, leading to some unusual careers. ‘Oz’ editor and underground press figure Felix Dennis is now a multi-millionaire, while French student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit later abandoned his revolutionary principles to join the Green party.
However if new claims are to be believed then the furthest journey could have been undertaken by John Lennon. In his classic track ‘Imagine’ the singer intoned a world without possessions, ‘a brotherhood of man’.
Now it seems that by the end of his life John Lennon was ready to vote Republican. One time personal assistant Fred Seaman has claimed that the former Beatle was disillusioned by Presidency of Jimmy Carter.
Speaking to Jam Showbiz, the PA said: “John made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on Jimmy Carter.”
“He’d met Reagan back in the 70s at some sporting event. Reagan was the guy who ordered soldiers to go after the young peace demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that. He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me.”
It should be pointed out that due to John Lennon’s protracted struggle to stay in the United States the former Beatle was not allowed to vote in Presidential elections.
Continuing, the former personal assistant explained that John Lennon has largely abandoned his far Left sympathies. “I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who’s an old-time communist. It was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.”
“He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote ‘Imagine’. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naivety” he explained.
Fred Seaman has contributed to the director Seth Swirsky’s new film ‘Beatle Stories’ which is currently showing in selected cinemas.
