What if John Lennon’s fabled “lost weekend” wasn’t actually lost?
“They made it sound like he was high the whole time.” And I took it personally,” May Pang, Lennon’s lover during his 18-month divorce from Yoko Ono, explains.
Pang, 72, reclaims the narrative in the new documentary “The Lost Weekend: A Love Story” (available Friday for home viewing on demand and Blu-ray). The film recounts a fruitful era in which the former Beatle joyfully engaged with Elton John and David Bowie while also cheerfully patching up his ties with Paul McCartney and son Julian Lennon. It’s a provocative account of the year and a half when Lennon was frequently making tabloid headlines for his boisterous evenings out, culminating in an event in which he was booted from The Troubadour for heckling The Smothers Brothers.
Her romance with John Lennon, who would have been 83 today, began oddly, even by 1970s standards. Pang, who was 22 at the time and worked as Lennon and Ono’s personal secretary, claims that in 1973, Yoko marched into her office and informed her, “John and I are not getting along, and I know he’s going to start seeing other people.” And I’d like you to date him.”
“John Lennon charmed the pants off me,” Pang admits in the documentary, now divorced with two adult children.
Pang spoke at length with USA TODAY from St. Louis, where she is suffering a cold while promoting her new photographic exhibit, on her friendship with Lennon and bearing witness to rock ‘n’ roll history. (This has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
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