About Garrod Kemp Expertise I am a general Beatles expert and have a vast library of material from which to check facts. This also covers much of the Merseybeat era as well. Although record production and distribution is outside of my area of expertise (I'm unable to access record values), I'm generally knowledgeable about names, places, and personalities in Beatle lore.
Experience I've been a fan and afficiondo since '66 and have collected memorablia since that time. I've toured Liverpool many times and been to each Beatle boyhood home, the clubs, Woolton Parish Church, Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. I've been in Apple's Savile Row offices twice while it existed in London.
Education/Credentials I am a High School 'push-out' who was more interested in Beatles than Biology.
Expert: Garrod Kemp Date: 5/11/2008 Subject: John Lennon
Question Remember when John used to be a little plump in the early Beatle years? Well how did he lose all that weight in the later years?
Answer Hi Ava, The simple answer, unfortunate as it may be, is drugs. John Lennon always had a taste for drugs from the earliest days in Liverpool, Hamburg and finally London.
When the Beatles found success in 1963, like all nouveau riche, they indulged their tastes in all manner of excess. Ringo once mentioned that he'd never had salmon but from a tin; he ordered salmon dinners everywhere they stayed. Harrod's Department Store opened their doors to the Beatles after hours so they could shop uninterrupted. You can bet, food items were on the top of the list!
By 1965 John Lennon was flush with success but frustrated by Beatlemania and stifled by his homelife. Drink and marijuana were the order of the day. The Beatles confessed that the filming of the movie "Eight Arms To Hold You" was filmed in a haze of pot smoke. John wrote the song 'Help' at the time (which eventually became the film title as well). That song, at that time, really tells the state of John Lennon's mind - it happened to be the during his "fat" period. Soon to follow was the "psychedelic" period>
It was this period of drug consumption that caused a loss of weight, much as what we see in rock stars to this very day. Drugs like LSD, cocaine and heroin and the lack of real food and nourishment gives that gaunt rock star look that we've come to know. Lennon certainly fit the profile.
The Maharishi interlude and meditation helped to quell the taste for drugs and John's growing relationship with Yoko Ono brought a macro-biotic taste for food.
John Lennon remained slim and extraordinarily healthy right up to his death. Even as a chain smoker, he was disease free and vigorous and energetic, as his efforts in making 'Double Fantasy' was to prove.
