Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them …

… “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …”

… how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment.

… being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.

… how he heard the news of Lennon’s death.

… booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’.

… the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days.

… how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions.

… abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.

… ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants.

… “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”.

… John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney.

… “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”.

Order Elliot’s book here:

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