Aide: Lennon Was Closet Republican

Former Beatle voiced support for Reagan, says last assistant
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Suggested by Guvner
Posted Jun 30, 2011 2:39 AM CDT
Updated Jun 30, 2011 4:01 AM CDT
John Lennon Was a Closet Republican, Assistant Fred Seaman Claims
Photo Credit: Iain Macmillan (C) Yoko Ono -- John Lennon albums remastered and new collections compiled for 'Gimme Some Truth' global catalogue initiative.   (PRNewsFoto/EMI Music, Iain Macmillan)

Hippie icon John Lennon was a secret fan of Ronald Reagan, claims his final personal assistant. Fred Seaman, who worked for the Lennons in the year before the ex-Beatle's death in 1980, says Lennon was embarrassed by his radical past, the Toronto Sun reports. Lennon "made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on Jimmy Carter," Seaman says in the new documentary Beatles Stories.

Lennon biographer Jon Weiner, however, isn't buying Seaman's claim that the star was a closet Republican just because he was disillusioned with Carter. Lennon never abandoned left-wing politics and spoke out in support of striking workers just weeks before his death, Weiner writes in the Nation, noting that Seaman was sentenced to probation after being convicted of stealing some of Lennon's belongings after his death. Click for another skeptic's view. (More John Lennon stories.)

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