A longtime associate of John Lennon and Yoko Ono will tell the story of his friendship with the couple in a new memoir.
Dutton will publish the book by Elliot Mintz, the media consultant who became a spokesman for the artists, the press announced in a news release.
Mintz, a New York native, started his career as a radio host in Los Angeles; he was fired from one station for playing Lennon and Ono’s album Some Time in New York in its entirety. (The record was a controversial one, with its only single containing the N-word in its title.) Mintz worked in television before pursuing a career in public relations.
He met Lennon and Ono in 1971, and became close friends with the couple, helping to console Ono after Lennon’s murder in 1980. He contributed an essay about the Beatle in a 2005 collection edited by Ono, titled Memories of John Lennon.
Dutton says, “John Lennon was, and Yoko Oko still is, like family to Elliot, and this book will tell the story of their relationship, which spans more than fifty years.”
“I have waited fifty years to share my experiences with Yoko and John,” Mintz said in a statement. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime. It is a privilege to share my odyssey and include the reader in [an] intimate portrayal of my two dearest friends.”
Mintz’s memoir, as yet untitled, will be published in the fall of 2024.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
