06/17/2025
From John Lennon (my musical hero) to every singer and musician struggling with self doubt. Your expression is beautiful to me. The more real, raw and open, the more beauty. Be yourself in what you do, and that is the spring of artistic beauty. It’s hard, but be there for it. I will be.
John Lennon once said, “I never liked hearing myself.” As a fan, that statement always struck me as surprising. How could a man with one of the most iconic voices in music history dislike the very thing that made him a legend?
But the more I read and listened to his interviews, the more I understood. Lennon was his own harshest critic. He often complained that his voice sounded “thin” or “nasal,” especially in early Beatles recordings. He used studio effects—like double tracking and echo—not just for style, but to mask his perceived imperfections.
He famously said he preferred the sound of his voice on songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows” or “Strawberry Fields Forever” because they were so processed. He even asked producer George Martin to make his voice “sound like the Dalai Lama shouting from a mountain top.” That request wasn’t about ego—it was about insecurity.
Lennon also disliked the emotional vulnerability in some of his songs. Listening back to tracks like “Julia” or “Mother” was painful because of how raw they were. He poured real trauma into those recordings, and hearing them again reopened old wounds.
As a fan, I don’t hear flaws—I hear honesty. But I respect that John, like many artists, struggled with self-perception. That very vulnerability made his music even more powerful. His voice may not have pleased him, but it moved millions of us.
