Yoko Ono, in a Q&A with fans, addresses a couple of questions involving recent Beatles-related events she attended, including the 56th annual Grammy awards and the star-flecked 50th anniversary concert filmed a day later.
Ono attended both shows, which found Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reuniting on stage. For Grammy night, they performed “Queenie Eye,” from McCartney’s current solo release New. For the anniversary event, they offered key Beatles songs apart, and then joined together for rousing versions of “Sgt. Pepper’s/With a Little Help From My Friends” and “Hey Jude.”
Ono, widow of their late bandmate John Lennon, was surrounded at each performance by a group that included their son Sean, Starr and his wife Barbara, Joe Walsh of the Eagles and his wife (who is Barbara’s sister), and McCartney and his wife Nancy. Ono, however, was the only one to be found unselfconsciously dancing in the aisles during both tapings.
“I was just being myself,” Yoko says. “My body starts to move when it hears music. And I feel better, rather than holding it back.”
The anniversary concert also featured a string of other acts interpreting the Beatles’ music, some with direct connections (like George Harrison’s son Dhani and Jeff Lynne, who has collaborated in the studio with McCartney, Harrison and Starr) and others with none.
Asked to pick a favorite moment, Ono demurred: “We all feel very nervous before the performance, you know. So I just blessed every performer who went on the stage and did it.”
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