John Lennon's son Sean has revealed an unlikely enthusiasm for firing guns, describing shooting as "really fun".
Tommorow, It's 30 years since his father was gunned down outside his Dakota building residence in New York by Mark Chapman, in a crime that shocked the world. However, when the Beatle's son began dating model Charlotte Kemp Muhl – the daughter of a Republican Catholic military family from the southern state of Georgia — he found himself facing a dilemma.
"It was the first time I had a friend or girlfriend whose parents I had to be approved by," explains the son of one of the world's most famously liberal couplings. "All her parents knew about mine was that they'd been hippy rock stars and there were these shocking stories about them being naked," he adds, referring to the infamous cover of the 1968 album, Two Virgins, which depicts Lennon and Yoko Ono in the nude.
Thus, in a move that may seem tactless but is clearly the way they do things down in Georgia, Lennon was invited down to the shooting range so that the family could see if their daughter's new squeeze was "a straight shooter".
"I was really nervous," admits Lennon, although his fears were more about failing to pass this "test" than confronting the means of his father's death. "I think it was kinda funny for them – they were teasing me a little bit — but whatever your feelings about guns in society, it's difficult to deny that it's fun shooting targets."
The 35-year-old musician's willingness to accept the challenge seems to have worked in his favour. Lennon and Muhl, 23, now cohabit in New York, have released an album, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, together, and Lennon says he gets on famously with her parents.
Still, it's somehow a relief to hear that he still believes in giving peace a chance.
"I don't think that people should be armed, personally," he admits, sounding more like a chip off the old block. "The right to bear arms had to do with a time when Americans were scared of native Indians because we were desecrating their land. It was a time when people wanted to militarise very quickly. But I don't think it applies to modern society. It's dangerous to walk in certain places when everyone's armed. Of course, I'm still against guns generally. They've impacted my life in a negative way."