Yoko with Jody Denberg - at the UN, 10/02 (Photo by Bob Gruen)

This is Jody Denberg and I'm on the line with Yoko Ono, who along with KGSR is presenting "Come Together" The Artwork of John Lennon. And that's going to be at the Austin Marriott at the Capitol Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Q: Yoko, this artwork show has been touring for about 15 years. It was last in Austin three years ago. Do you do different things to the show to make it a little different each time?

A: Well, it's a very hot show now, you know. And every year we just put something else in. Add something in and -- it's just great. It's going very well.

Q: John's education, he went to the Liverpool Art Institute. So he, I guess, got some education in visual art. And then became a musician. And you studied music and then you went on to visual art and performance art. It's interesting that way.

A: I know, it's amazing, isn't it? No, we just had a very good luck in knowing each other and knowing our backgrounds, which are very similar in a way.

Q: Did John keep notebooks from an early age of his drawings?

A: Yes. You know, when he was nine or something, I think, he did this incredible, beautiful drawings of -- it's called the Liverpool Echo or something like that. And just kind of like take off on Liverpool Echo newspaper.

Q: Right.

A: And he did an incredible mature drawings. And the concept of it was very much mature too, like a kind of black humor. And it's really an amazing guy John was. From early age he was very good.

Q: Are some of those early drawings the ones that were on the cover of "Walls and Bridges?"

A: Yes. Yes. And also I think you should take note about the fact that started as an artist because he was so good and the teacher said, "Okay. Well, you better go to an art school." And he was going to a Liverpool Art school, which was supposed to be one of the best in the world or something. And then afterwards, he decided to become a musician.

Q: So interesting. And for someone that moved around as much as John did, I mean, on the road during the Beatles - he kept his stuff. I mean, it's all there, isn't it?

A: I know. He never ceased to be an artist. It was very interesting that way, yeah.

Q: But even when you moved from England to New York -- for instance, one thing -- what I'm getting to is like the -- one of the latest editions to the artwork show in the last few years has been the reproduction of his song lyric manuscripts. He had to save all of these and put them in boxes and really keep an eye on that stuff.

A: I know. Well, you know, he was always like that. He was very aware of what he was doing as an artist. And if there was something that he didn't like, he knew that that might just get around somewhere later because he was so famous and all that. So would just immediately crumple it and throw it in the trash can and that was it, you know. He editing it himself, in a way.

Q: When you were with John and he was doing his visual art, was he the kind of guy that would just draw anywhere or would he go to his room to be alone?

A: No, no, no. He wouldn't do a thing like that. I mean, it was like it was pouring out of him all the time. He was a very inspired person. He would be doing it on the plane, for instance. There's a famous story that he had written some parts of the lyrics on the plane, et cetera. But exactly like that with visual arts as well.

Q: We're talking with Yoko Ono and she's presenting the Artwork of John Lennon -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday here in Austin, Texas, at the Marriott at the Capitol.

One series of John's drawings that I'm especially fond of are the line drawings. And were those done when he would spend some time in Japan with you and Sean?

A: Right. Yes. I mean he kind of quickly adopted the oriental way of doing things. He was very fascinated by that. So, you know, it's like he's experimenting that way. But he did very, very incredible good version of it.

Jody with Yoko Feb. 2, 2002 Photo by Andy Taub

Q: Another series that folks will see at the Artwork of John Lennon show is the Real Love series, which were drawings for Sean. And I don't know if you've come across it, but I will go to a friend's house and they have a new baby and they'll have a bib or a crib or whatever and then I'll realize, oh, there's John's drawings. It really has made his drawings accessible to all ages of people.

A: Yes, it's just made such a big impact. Well, I wasn't expecting a real sort of explosion like that, but it's great. And of course it's logical in a way because, well, parents love children and they want to buy something that's very sweet. And I'm very happy about that.

Q: Real Love was a good name for that series.

A: Well yes, it's a little bit of love that we're all giving to - giving John's love to children, actually.

Q: Yeah, the Real Love series does give John's love to children. And what's interesting is, children used to turn on to John and the Beatles through "Yellow Submarine." I mean, that's how Sean first realized that his father was in this group called the Beatles.

A: (Laughs) Right...

Q: And now, Real Love catches the kids even earlier.

A: I know, it's great.

Q: The Artwork of John Lennon, some of it is actually a collaboration with you because some of the pieces have been colored. And you did that after John's passing. It's nice that you can still collaborate with him in that fashion.

A: Yeah it was just a practical thing that happened. But I though, well, you know, I'd like to do it myself, instead of letting some professionals do it. Because we were partners and I thought that he wouldn't have minded. It's that kind of thing.

Q: The artwork that John has done, as we said earlier, stretches from his earliest days as a child to right up until his passing. You've been spending a bit of time with John's early days by -- what I'm getting at is: You've been going to Liverpool. There's the Liverpool John Lennon Airport. And also, there's Mendips. And that's the home where John lived from when he was five to when he was 23 with his Aunt Mimi. Can you tell me what the experience was like. You purchased Mendips, right, so that the public could have access to it?

A: Exactly. Yeah, well, it was a nerve wracking thing to do because first of all, I didn't know if I could get it. And I finally got it and I said, "Well, what am I going to do with it?" Of course, you know, I should donate it to the city. And that's what I did.

Q: I was curious how they kept the home -- you know, how they made it seem as if time had never passed?

A: I know. That was very important. And Michael Cutwalter (phonetic), who is John's cousin, I kind of appointed him to oversee that site because I knew that the family had to look after it, too, because they're the ones who really remember and know how it was. And he's done a very good job. And well, of course, I worked my side of the stuff, too, in a way. It was hard work but it really paid in a way.

Q: It's just amazing. You fly into Liverpool. You go to the Liverpool John Lennon Airport. It's so sweet.

A: Isn't it great? It's just so great, you know. And all that added to the fact that finally Liverpool was selected as the coastal city of Europe. And I'm very happy about that.

Q: Next month, in Japan, there's the Dream Power concert, which is a tribute to John Lennon. I don't know too much about that. Can you tell me a little about that?

A: Yeah. Dream Power concert. That has been organized by a guy named Tetso Hamada Hada. And he was the -- the president of (the) Beatles Fan Club just when John passed away. And that's when I started to know him. And he was organizing people at the time, the fans at the time in a very wise way so that kids who were just about to jump out of the window or something, they didn't. That kind of thing. It was very important that he was there. And then now, he's organizing this concert, which came from him, actually. And I thought it was a very good idea. And so it's a tribute concert to John. And all the Japanese big pop stars sing John's songs. And then the proceeds goes to -- it's a charitable concert and the proceeds goes to building many schools in Third World countries.