Why was Yoko Ono fed up with John Lennon? Producer Jack Douglas revisits their Studio 1 clashes

John Lennon Center For Music & Technology Ribbon Cutting - Source: Getty
Yoko Ono at the John Lennon Center For Music & Technology Ribbon Cutting (Image via Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

Jack Douglas, John Lennon's producer, revealed the reason why Yoko Ono would yell at them after their studio sessions. Lennon and Ono married in 1969 after meeting at an art exhibition three years earlier and collaborated on experimental music, forming one of the most iconic musical partnerships.

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Douglas worked with both Lennon and Ono, especially on their 1989 album Double Fantasy. During The Magnificent Other with Billy Corgan podcast on Wednesday, November 26, the record producer recalled what it was like to work with the couple, whom he said would sometimes argue because Yoko Ono would get fed up with John Lennon for smoking pot after studio sessions.

"When we were doing Double Fantasy and word got out that maybe we were smoking pot after the session was over, and then Yoko would get, like, pi**ed off at us."
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Yoko Ono and John Lennon (Image via Dennis Stone/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
Yoko Ono and John Lennon (Image via Dennis Stone/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

He said that Ono would summon them to her office in Studio 1 and yell at them, leaving them "standing there like two school children." Jack Douglas also recalled Yoko Ono's threat over their behavior, saying she told him she could get Phil Spector to do the sessions instead.

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However, the threat never panned out because at that point, Douglas recalled that the late singer "hated" Spector.


John Lennon and Yoko Ono's documentary is "almost done," says Steven Soderbergh

Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is creating a documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, focusing on their interview the afternoon before Lennon was killed in 1980. While the project remains untitled, Soderbergh shared some details about it, including the latest updates on the film.

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The filmmaker attended the inaugural Doha Film Festival over the weekend for the premiere of his latest film, The Christopher. During the press conference, he talked about his still untitled documentary and mentioned that it's "almost done."

"I'm excited about it, it's an incredible historical document, this interview. The job is to present it in such a way that enhances the interview and doesn't distract from it."
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Soderbergh also shared a disclaimer that he isn't trying to reinvent the form [of documentary], but hopes to create a film that will attract more viewers to hear "what John and Yoko had to say on that afternoon before he was killed."

According to Rolling Stone, Lennon and Ono were promoting their Double Fantasy album at the time of his death. On the afternoon before he died, the couple was being interviewed by RKO Radio's Laurie Kaye and Dave Sholin.

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The interview took place in the couple's New York City apartment on December 8, 1980, just hours before he was murdered outside the apartment building that evening. RKO aired the interview, and Kaye wrote about the experience in her memoir, Confessions of a Rock 'n' Roll Name Dropper.


John Lennon and Yoko Ono's upcoming feature film will be Soderbergh's first documentary since he made Spalding Gray's And Everything Is Going Fine in 2010.

Stay tuned for more details and updates.

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Edited by Kinette Sumadia
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