John Lennon, baker

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A recent segment on NPR’s Weekend Edition called “All We Are Saying: Three Weeks With John Lennon,” introduces tape recordings that writer David Sheff made while interviewing Lennon in New York over a three-week period in 1980. The Playboy interview hit the newsstands just two days before Lennon’s death.

It’s fascinating to hear a relaxed Lennon talking candidly. (The interview has just been released as an ebook, unfortunately not as an audiobook.) But get this: At the time, Lennon was a stay-at-home dad and got into bread baking with his 5-year-old son Sean. John Lennon, baker?

“I took a Polaroid photo of my first loaf,” Lennon says. “I was overjoyed, you know. I was that excited by it. I couldn’t believe it, it was like an album coming out of the oven on the instant. And every day I was cooking lunch for the staff--drivers, office boys, anybody who was working. Come on up! I love it!”

Such a happy memory. Wonder what he cooked.

Hear the story at NPR Weekend Edition.

“All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono” by David Sheff is published by Macmillan as an ebook ($4.99 at Barnes & Noble and Amazon’s Kindle Store). The paperback published in 2000 is out of print.

--S. Irene Virbila