We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me – Mintz Elliot (2024)

From the moment he interviewed Yoko Ono on his late-night radio show in September 1971, Elliot Mintz’s life was never the same again. That phone call led to an intense and revealing friendship with Yoko and her husband, John Lennon, which lasted until John’s untimely death in 1980 and continued beyond it to the present day. In 1971, Mintz was a talk-show host on American radio, speaking with major figures from the burgeoning West Coast music scene when he was asked to interview Yoko about her new album. Their conversation soon led to private calls and then to John Lennon, with whom Mintz quickly formed a close bond. The conversations became hours-long epics, eventually prompting Mintz to install a second telephone line whose number was known only to John and Yoko. In the tumultuous decade following The Beatles’ breakup, Mintz witnessed events at close hand or heard about them directly, including the unbearable cost of fame when John and Yoko separated during what became known as his “lost weekend”. There was joy when their son Sean was born, followed by the creative rebirth represented by the multi-platinum triumph Double Fantasy. Then came unimaginable tragedy when John was brutally murdered in December 1980.