Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son, took to Twitter on Saturday after seeing his late father’s Beatles bandmate Sir Paul McCartney in an airport lounge.
The artist, 59, smiled as he posed for a black-and-white photo with the 80-year-old, who disclosed he was listening to a John song on Spotify.
Julian wrote in his caption: ‘It’s Amazing who you run into in an airport Lounge! None other than Uncle Paul…. So, so lovely, and what are the chances… Thankful…. ❤️.’
Julian said earlier this year how tough it was for him to attend his father’s posthumous Glastonbury performance alongside former bandmate Sir Paul.
John was brought back to life using the wonders of video and artificial intelligence to play a duet of ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ with Sir Paul, who gave a breathtaking three-hour show at the summer festival in June.
The captivating prank was the invention of Peter Jackson, the director of the Beatles documentary Get Back, who utilized machine learning technology to separate Lennon’s voice from decades-old recordings and arrange them to create a simulation of a live performance.
‘I watched it on YouTube — and I kind of went: ”Errrr . . . I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.” It shocked me,’ his son said.
Julian, the son of John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia, was 17 years old when his father was assassinated in December 1980.
He stated that it was difficult at first to see his late father ‘brought to life’ to play with his former Beatles bandmate – a trick Macca performed for the first time on the first concert of his global tour in the United States in April.
Julian couldn’t bring himself to watch the first performance because he wasn’t sure how he’d react to seeing a film of his late father projected onto a massive screen while hearing an incredibly accurate rendition of his gentle, melodic singing.
When Glasto came around at the end of June, Julian decided to bite the bullet and witness Sir Paul’s performance in the English countryside, despite the fact that it had been two months since the US show.
‘I actually enjoyed it,’ he said, having found he’d finally made peace with the concept of seeing his father play on a big screen.
Sir Paul became the festival’s oldest headliner when he performed a week after his 80th birthday.
His massive concert included collaborations with Foo Fighters member Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen and a John Lennon duet that astonished the sold-out crowd.
Meanwhile, Jackson, who helmed The Lord Of The Rings, spoke about how he could use the current technology to aid Lennon’s posthumous performance – but he was unwilling to provide much more.
‘We developed a machine learning system that we taught what a guitar sounds like, what a bass sounds like, what a voice sounds like,’ the New Zealander said.
‘In fact, we taught the computer what John and Paul sound like.’
Jackson is said to have used the same techniques and custom-made artificial intelligence to develop The Beatles documentary Get Back, isolating background noise, instruments, and voice from the original mono recordings to allow editors to use material that would otherwise be useless.
Sir Paul confessed after the heartfelt duet at Glastonbury, which was enthusiastically lauded by fans, ‘That is so special for me. I know it’s virtual. There I am singing with John again, we’re back together.’