On August 6th, 2011, at The Fest for Beatles Fans Chicago, I had a chance to sit down with an author who has devoted her whole life to The Beatles Specifically, John Lennon. At 9:30 at night, I went down into the basement Beatles marketplace and walked up to a table, resplendently piled with books with John Lennon's gentle face gracing the covers. A vivacious blond-haired woman immediately bounded into my midst and my life, and the planned interview began. And what an amazing half-an-hour it was.
Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of two novels (out of a planned nine novel series) about the life and legend of John Winston Lennon, Shoulda Been There (published in 2008) and Shivering Inside (published in 2010.) Shoulda Been There covers his birth in October 1940 through December 1961, while Shivering Inside picks up in December 1961 to April 1963.
In this interview (which will span three separate blogs- to view the first part, published yesterday, follow THIS link, or to see the second part, follow THIS link), Jude will tell me about her life and John Lennon's life: both of which are equally fascinating and revelatory.
In this third, and final, set of questions, we will hear Jude spell out the next few books in the series, hear her thoughts on The Fest for Beatles Fans and she will answer some of my more humorous questions:
Steven Krage: If possible, could you please give me a timeline for the next few books you plan to write? When will they be written and what years of John’s life will they cover?
Jude Southerland Kessler: The next one will be out in October 2013, entitled She Loves You, and it’ll cover 1963-1965, opens on the Spanish Holiday, ending with Hard Day’s Night. The next group will be the Psychedelic Years, where the center begins to fall apart, and they begin to break apart. Then that will end in 1967 with the meeting of Yoko. And once John has climbed down from that ladder and knows Yoko, we enter the beginning of the Solo Years, when they all start to go their separate ways. After that, I don’t know how I’m going to break it down when we get to John’s life with Yoko, what segments we’re going to go into. But I do know the last four years of his life is an entity all its own: he and Yoko are living apart, he’s living in the Bahamas a lot, and things are not holding the way they should be. And he is thinking about going back to Liverpool. After that, I do not have it all clear cut. I do know that they will all be SH- titles, last one being Shine On. The covers will all be very similar. I have a big announcement coming out in two weeks about what I’m going to do with the covers, and I won’t say now, but be looking for it. An artist has agreed to do all the covers, we’re gonna redo the first two, and we’re going to have beautiful covers.
SK: That’ll be a fun thing to see. What are your thoughts on the current state of Beatles culture? Do you think The Beatles are just as popular as ever or is their appeal waning?
JSK: No! I think they’ve captured the imagination of people that are your age and my readership is very strange. If you had asked me who I thought was going to read these books, I would have said, “Baby Boomer women.” I have almost no female readers. Almost all of the readers, men. I would say 90% are men and many are in their teens and twenties. So we have a whole new group to appreciate The Beatles because they were genius and they are seeing the value and the sustained lasting music. You think of all that’s going on: they’re making a movie about Brian Epstein now, they’re making a movie about John Harrison, last year you had Let It be and Nowhere Boy, I’ve never seen such popularity.
SK: But even in Las Vegas and the Cirque du Soliel Love Show, you have four or five year olds going to that show and falling in love with the scenery and little things like that make them fall in love with The Beatles.
JSK: It’s true. I wrote to a girl in Canada about a week ago and I said, “I’d like to inscribe your book, can you tell me a little about yourself?” She said, “I will tell you this: I am twenty-three years old and John Lennon is the love of my life.”
SK: And that’s a story that brings a little bit of a tear to your eye. Now, for a rather humorous question: Do you think the songs of The Beatles could have the ability to be transformed into a musical theatre piece, such as ABBA’s songs were transformed into Mamma Mia?
JSK: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, of course, you’ve seen the movie Across the Universe, which was beautiful, I was so proud to have lived in the sixties, and I was so choked up because they took those songs and told a story about the development of the sixties and it was beautiful, so yes Musical Theater, it could be fantastic and I hope someday does it. Maybe you’ll do it?!
SK: What are your thoughts on our beloved The Fest for Beatles Fans? It has become a Chicago institution, I have gone for the past 8 or 9 years myself, and I wondered if you would share your experiences at the Fest and the wonderful Beatles fans you have met?
JSK: I do a lot of shows every year. I do not only the New York Fest but I went to Stanford, Connecticut for RockCon. I go everywhere and do shows and Mark and Carol Lapidos do such a brilliant job with this festival, and my best friend, all of my best friends, are Beatles fans. Rita, who sells here, is one my closest friends. I have a reader who lives in Florida, who is one of my closest friends. We all are a family. My husband was recently unemployed, a good many months, and the Beatles fans all band together to help us find a job and to do whatever they could do. We love each other; we pray for each other, we’re a family. It just couldn’t be a better thing.
SK: And it’s a wonderful thing to have places like this for Beatles fans to congregate. There’s no negativity at all. It’s just a wonderful experience.
JSK: No, In fact I wrote an article for Beatles News last night. When I walked in last night at about 1:00, we went out to the car to unload stuff for today, and a man at me, “HAPPY BEATLES DAY!” And I said, “HAPPY BEATLES WORLD!” and he said, “HAPPY BEATLES!” and that’s the theme of being here. Happy Beatles.
SK: And now, the obligatory final question: Which Beatles song AND which John Lennon song best describes the life of John Lennon?
JSK: John Lennon Solo Song is, without a doubt, “Julia.” When he talks about the fact that he’s “half-meaningless”, except for the fact that he loves her and he’s trying to get her to notice him and to love him, you’re hearing his heart. He’s telling you who he is. What Beatles song? Maybe, “Hide Your Love Away.” Feeling “two-foot small” and “I have to hide who I am” and “I won’t let you see who I am.” You know, I think that one is him telling you again: I’m one thing to the public but I’m something entirely different and I have to hide who I am.
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I hope you all have enjoyed this interview! Jude was a wonderful interview, and we will certainly hear from her, on this blog, in the future!
If you want to read Part One, follow THIS link.
If you want to read Part Two, follow THIS link.
Be sure to comment on this (and all the other) blog and visit Jude Southerland Kessler's Website to contact her and learn more about her project!
You can also follow her on Twitter! (Follow THIS link.)
Filed under: Interviews
Tags: cirque du soliel, george harrison, hard day's night, hide your love away, john lennon, john winston lennon, jude southerland kessler, julia, las vegas, left propagandist obama christine o'donnell mozart the magic flute conservative GOP bobby eberle, mamma mia, mark and carol lapidos, novel, novels, paul mccartney, ringo starr, rockcon, she loves you, shine on, shivering inside, shoulda been there, the beatle's love, the beatles, the fest
Even though John Lennon is the only musician who performs during Julia, it's still credited as a Lennon/McCartney composition. It also appears on the "White Album." That would make it a Beatles song, now? Just like Yesterday is a Beatles song even though Paul wrote and performed the whole thing. Seriously, I think your mere presence in a room makes people less intelligent than they usually are.