Cynthia Lennon Said People in Liverpool Saw John Lennon as a ‘Fool’ Who Would ‘Never Make Anything of Himself’

John Lennon was majorly successful with The Beatles. Here's why this may have come as a surprise to those who knew him in Liverpool.

When Cynthia Lennon met John Lennon, she saw a great deal of potential in him. Most people in their hometown of Liverpool did not also feel this way. According to Cynthia, the people who knew Lennon as a child and teenager did not think he was destined for greatness.

Cynthia Lennon said people in Liverpool didn’t think highly of John Lennon

When Cynthia began dating Lennon, his closest friends were Paul McCartney and Stuart Sutcliffe. Cynthia said that the three of them were among the few people who believed Lennon was someone special.

“Most people thought John was destined to be a drop-out and a bum, who would never knuckle down to a decent job or make anything of himself,” she wrote in her book John. “All they saw was the fool who clowned around in class and gave all the serious students wicked — and very irritating — nicknames.”

She admitted that even the people who believed in him understood that there were two different sides to Lennon.

“Our teachers said that he would be either a genius or a tramp — there was no in-between with him,” she wrote. “In the same way, people either liked or loathed him, and it was impossible to ignore. Those of us who loved him knew that he could go off the rails, but we also saw in him raw talent and the potential for real creativity.”

Cynthia Lennon said John Lennon let his guard down in front of only a handful of people

Unsurprisingly, Lennon let his guard down around the three people who put the most faith in him.

“Paul was one of the three people John was closest to,” Cynthia wrote. “Although he had plenty of cronies, he only really let his guard down with Paul, me, and Stuart Sutcliffe.”

Cynthia believed that Sutcliffe was a particularly good friend to Lennon because he didn’t try to mimic him.

“Unlike many of John’s cronies, Stuart didn’t look up to John or try to ape him,” she said. “He respected John and treated him as an equal, which was something John valued a great deal.”

She thought he needed Paul McCartney’s presence in his life

While Cynthia believed in her future husband’s potential, she also thought he needed a bit of a push to achieve success. In her eyes, Lennon would never have made it as far as he did without McCartney. Lennon was talented, but he needed someone to help him focus.

“He would have ended up a bum … It’s hard to say that now, after what happened, but he wouldn’t have cared that much,” she said in the book Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman. “I’d have gone out to work, he wouldn’t have any qualifications whatsoever because he was falling foul of the art college, and Mimi would have pushed him in all sorts of directions. He would have needed to learn a trade, or go back to school again, and I can’t see him concentrating. He’d have gone downhill.”