John Lennon Saw Stuart Sutcliffe as a ‘Soul Mate,’ but He Treated Him ‘Really Badly’
Before The Beatles were the Fab Four, the band had five members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Stuart Sutcliffe. Best and Sutcliffe left the group before they achieved massive stardom. Lennon and Sutcliffe were particularly close after having met in art school. While Lennon thought of his friend as a soul mate, those around him noted that he could treat Sutcliffe poorly.
John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe met in art school
Lennon met Sutcliffe at the Liverpool College of Art, where they were both studying. Sutcliffe was a talented painter who helped Lennon get through his classes. Lennon, in turn, taught Sutcliffe about music and later recruited him to join his band.
Sutcliffe did not remain a member of The Beatles for long, but he made a lasting impact on the group. With Lennon, he helped come up with the band name. They decided to reference both the Beat Generation and Buddy Holly’s band, The Crickets. The resulting name stuck with the band long after Sutcliffe decided to leave the group.
John Lennon could treat Stuart Sutcliffe poorly
Those who knew Lennon growing up said that he could be biting.
“He took the piss out of me, which made me laugh,” comedian Jimmy Tarbuck told The Guardian. “He was a character, sarcastic, full of quips.”
Sometimes, though, this trait bordered on cruelty. He could reportedly be quite mean to the people close to him, including Sutcliffe.
“He was a bit aggressive at first. If he found he could browbeat you then you were under his thumb,” a friend, Billy Harry, said. “He used to treat Stuart [Sutcliffe] really badly at times, humiliate him in front of people. At college girls would be chatting in the corridor, and when John walked by they’d shut up and shiver. He had a bit of an acid tongue. But if you stood up to him he liked that.”
Though he mistreated his friend, Yoko Ono said that Lennon consistently spoke about Sutcliffe throughout his life. According to her, Lennon thought he and Sutcliffe were “soul mates.”
The one-time member of The Beatles died in 1962
After leaving The Beatles, Sutcliffe rededicated himself to painting. As he did this, he complained of worsening headaches. On April 10, 1962, he died of a brain hemorrhage. His girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr, broke the news to his former bandmates, and Lennon took the news particularly hard.
“John went into hysterics,” Kirchherr said, per The New Yorker. “We couldn’t make out . . . whether he was laughing or crying because he did everything at once. I remember him sitting on a bench, huddled over, and he was shaking, rocking backward and forward.”
Lennon reportedly referenced Sutcliffe in the song “In My Life.” In it, he sings, “All these places have their moments/With lovers and friends I still can recall/Some are dead and some are living/In my life I’ve loved them all.”
