Sean Lennon

Sean Taro Ono Lennon (小野 太郎) is an American-British musician, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist.

He is the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and half-brother to Julian Lennon.

Over the course of his career, he has been a member of the bands Cibo Matto, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, The Claypool Lennon Delirium and his parents' group Plastic Ono Band.

Sean Lennon was born at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, New York City, on 9 October 1975, his father's 35th birthday.

He is of Japanese descent on his mother's side and English, Welsh and Irish descent on his father's side.

Julian Lennon is his half-brother, and Kyoko Chan Cox is his half-sister.

Elton John is his godfather.

After Sean's birth, John Lennon became a house husband, caring for his young son until his murder on December 8, 1980.

Sean attended kindergarten in Tokyo and, at his request, was educated at the exclusive private boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland, and earlier at New York's private Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Dalton School.

He attended Columbia University for three semesters, majoring in anthropology before dropping out to focus on his music and tour with his mother.

His parents kick-started his musical career: his debut into the music world came at age five, when he recited a story on his mother's 1981 album, Season of Glass.

From childhood into his teen years, Lennon continued to collaborate with his mother, contributing vocals and receiving production credit on her solo albums It's Alright, Starpeace and Onobox.

In October 1984, when Steve Jobs was visiting Manhattan, he attended a party that Ono was throwing for Lennon and Jobs gave him one of the first Macintosh computers as his birthday present.

That same year, he sang "It's Alright" on the Ono tribute album Every Man Has a Woman for his mother.

Lennon also made appearances in film, featured in the cast of Michael Jackson's 1988 Moonwalker and portraying a teenager experiencing visions of various M. C. Escher prints in Sony's 1990 promotional short-film Infinite Escher.

Lennon holds dual citizenship with the United States and United Kingdom.

At 16 Lennon co-wrote the song "All I Ever Wanted" with Lenny Kravitz for his 1991 album Mama Said, and worked with Kravitz on a cover of his father's "Give Peace a Chance" in protest of the Gulf War.

By 1995 Lennon had formed the band IMA (with Sam Koppelman and Timo Ellis) to play alongside his mother on her album Rising.

In 1996, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto were invited by Ono to remix the song "Talking to the Universe" for a Rising remix EP Rising Mixes.

They met Lennon and invited him to join them on tour as a bass player.

This eventually led to Lennon's contributing to their side-project Butter 08 and to his becoming a member of the group.

He continued to play with them on tour, joining them on television and providing bass guitar and vocals on their EP Super Relax.

Through his association with Cibo Matto, Lennon was approached by Adam Yauch (of Beastie Boys), who expressed an interest in his music and persuaded him to sign a record contract with Grand Royal Records.

Regarding Grand Royal, Lennon has said:"I think I found the only label on the planet who doesn't care who my parents are and what my name is. It's a good feeling to know that I wouldn't have gotten the offer if they wouldn't have liked my songs. That's pretty rare in the music business!"

He has released two solo albums: Into the Sun (1998) and Friendly Fire (2006).

He has produced numerous albums for various artists, including Black Lips and the Plastic Ono Band.

Lennon's solo debut Into the Sun, was released in 1998.

A music video for "Home", a single from the album, was directed by Spike Jonze and enjoyed extended airplay on MTV.

The album was produced by fellow Cibo Matto member Yuka Honda, who Lennon claimed was his inspiration for the album, who he had begun dating at the time.

He went on tour (often backed by Cibo Matto) supporting Into the Sun.

During this period he appeared on radio programs such as The Howard Stern Show and KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.

He later recalled promoting the album as a bitter experience due to the media focus on his family rather than his own music.

In 1999, Lennon's EP Half Horse, Half Musician was released featuring new tracks such as "Heart & Lung" and "Happiness" as well as remixes of songs from Into the Sun.

Along with Half Horse Half Musician, 1999 saw the release of Cibo Matto's second album Stereo Type A.

Lennon stepped out of his traditional role as the group's bass player, this time playing a much wider range of instruments (such as drums, guitars, and synthesizers).

Despite being well-received, Stereo Type A was followed by an extended Cibo Matto hiatus.

In 2000, Lennon contributed vocals to Del tha Funkee Homosapien (a single stanza on the Deltron 3030 track "Memory Loss"), Handsome Boy Modeling School and Jurassic 5.

In 2000, Sean had a guest appearance on the Soulfly album Primitive on the song "Son Song".

In 2001 on national television, Lennon performed several classics by the Beatles, "This Boy", "Across the Universe" and "Julia" alongside Robert Schwartzman, Rufus Wainwright and Moby for Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music.

In the following years, Lennon faded out of the spotlight to focus more on his role as a producer.