There was a period of time when John Lennon was separated from wife Yoko Ono and had relocated to Los Angeles, where he became a hard-partying fixture in Hollywood.
His affair with May Pang has long been part of rock and roll mythology and recently the subject of a documentary "The Lost Weekend: A Love Story," which details Pang's outlook on the relationship.
Fans now have a a rare opportunity to see the former Beatle in a new light with her personal photos.
WUSF's Cathy Carter recently spoke with her about the exhibit, "The Lost Weekend - The Photography of May Pang, " which is on view at Tempus Projects Ybor City.
May, for those who may not be familiar with your story, you were 22 years old when you started dating John Lennon. It was a time when John and Yoko Ono were having problems in their relationship. You were their personal assistant, and one day, Yoko came up to you in the office and said, ‘I know John is going to start seeing other people, so I want that person to be you.’
And of course, I turned around and said, ‘no, I cannot be me.' I said, ‘you guys are my bosses. I'm not interested in this.’ I'd been working for them for over three years by that point. But she goes, ‘I think you should,’ and then she walks out of the office. John and I had a discussion later on, when we got together and I said, ‘did you know any of this? And he said, no, not one bit.'
Long story short, you did fall in love and this was a time when he made the albums Mind Games and Walls and Bridges, and you witnessed a lot of musical history. You were actually with John Lennon when he was producing a Harry Nilsson album, which led to a reunion with Paul McCartney.
It was the first night of recording with Harry. So, John was doing playback and listening to see what he had gotten down on track. I happened to be facing the door, and the door opened, and I see Paul and Linda, and John turned his head and saw them. So he goes, 'why don't you hang around? We're going to just jam around afterwards.' So, Paul was on drums, Linda was playing Hammond organ, and we also had another special guest happen to walk through, which was Stevie Wonder. He ended up on electric piano, and Mal Evans, who was the original roadie for The Beatles, he and I both grabbed tambourines and we became part of that last jam session and that's how it became the last time they ever played together actually.
May, one of the things you reveal in your recent documentary is that of your happiest memories of this time was that you were able to facilitate a rekindling of John's relationship with his son, Julian Lennon. You all had a really great trip to Disney World, and that led to a pretty extraordinary photo that we're going to see in this exhibit.
It was in the middle of the time where the dissolution of the Beatles agreement was all happening, and John was supposed to sign it, and it didn't happen, because there was a clause in there that he would be the one responsible for taxes if they broke up the group. And since he was the only one that lived in America, he says, 'I need some help here. I don't want to be the only one paying the taxes,' so he didn't sign it. But it was worked out and they brought it down to John. We happened to be in Disney World, the happiest place on earth, right? So, the lawyers came in, John's personal lawyer, and another lawyer, and the other three had already signed it. So, John's yelling out to me, saying, ‘come on May, come in and take a photo. I want you to take some photos.' So, I'm the only other person in that room, along with John and the two lawyers.
Such an odd, fun fact, the Beatles ended at the Polynesian resort.
Everybody to this day is trying to figure out which room it is. And people said, ‘oh, well, we figured it out. It's on the first floor.' We were never on the first floor, that's for sure. All I remember is getting off the monorail and going up. I hear that whoever marked it is now trying to sell that room for a premium, you know, when they rent it. So, it's kind of funny.
Let's talk a little bit about the exhibit that will be in Tampa this weekend. These are personal photos of John Lennon, of your time with him. So, we get to see him in a whole new manner, very relaxed, and the way you saw him, essentially.
Right. Well, you know, my partner in this venture is Scott Segelbaum and he had been chasing me for six years to start doing these shows. And I said, ‘no, I don't think anybody would care about my photos of John.' They were underneath my bed, in my storage, and so I took them out, and he's going through them and going, ‘are you kidding me? People would love this.' It's been really wonderful to meet people and see their reaction to these photos, because they were just meant for us, you know? Because to me, he was just John.
'The Lost Weekend' - The photography of May Pang at Tempus Projects in Ybor City, Friday Jan. 24 through Sunday, Jan. 26.
