I Play Music, My Name Is Lennon

Lennon is her real first name, and Yoko is suing her for it.

Lennon Anne Murphy is a singer/songwriter from Henderson, Tennessee who has been performing under her own name since the age of 14. When people ask her if she's named after the Beatle she says no; "My mother named me after 'John Lennon that wrote songs, painted, and baked bread with his son.'"

At 18, she signed with Arista Records, going by her first name alone. Ironically enough, her manager was the son of Yoko Ono's lawyer, and they made the artist aware of the use of her late husband's name in 2000. In 2003, the U.S. Patent & Trademark office granted Murphy the ownership of the name Lennon for musical use. Merely two days before the statute of limitations was up, after which no legal proceedings may be initiated on the subject, the very same lawyer filed a complaint against Murphy, accusing her of causing confusion in the market place that has damaged John Lennon's name.

What changed Ono's mind after the eight years in which the singer built her career? A hurt and confused Lennon Murphy thus addressed a letter to her fans asking for support. The struggling artist makes a valid argument: if people were confusing her with the Beatle and accidentally buying her records, you'd think she'd be making enough money to at least hire a lawyer to defend her.

"I just wanted everyone to know what is going on," the singer wrote. "I never falsified my intentions, I never used John Lennon for my benefit, and I never took one cent out of Yoko's bank account," which, she makes sure to mention, collects the $25 million a year that the John Lennon estate brings in. "I play music, my name is Lennon," she says.

Julian Lennon, John Lennon's first child and only child of his first wife Cynthia, has posted Murphy's letter on his myspace blog. "She has my full support," he says.