DADDY DEAREST

Annabelle Garcia eulogized her famous old man like this: “He may have been a genius, but he was a shitty father.” 

Julian Lennon, or even Sean, might have said the same thing about their own legendary father. Lennon felt like “the Empire State Building” after the birth of Sean and, as a “breadbaking househusband,” appeared to dote on his second son. But, in the end, he confessed to his confidante, John Green: “I tried the father bit and blew it. I hated the role, and then I started hating the kid because I thought he as the one who forced me into it.” As for his first son, Julian, the Beatle only saw him a handful of times after divorcing his mother. “Dad’s always telling people to love each other, but how come he doesn’t love me?” the boy asked Cynthia.

Elvis too was smitten by his daughter initially. But, according to “the Guys” – his live-in bodyguard brothers – Lisa Marie became for him little more than a plaything and trophy.

At first Kurt Cobain called his infant daughter “the greatest drug in the world.” But in his “suicide” note, he wrote: “She reminds me too much of what I used to be, full of love and joy… I can't stand the thought of Frances becoming the miserable, self-destructive, death rocker that I've become.”

The only other parent of the Seven was Hendrix. He had two illegitimate children whom he never took the trouble to meet, much less to support. Morrison had nineteen paternity suits filed against him but only acknowledged one impregnation, to his second “wife,” Patricia Kenneally. He offered to pay for the abortion but didn’t bother to show up for the procedure. Janis Joplin had one abortion. 

So, eternal youths, the Seven, not quite cut out for parenthood, never experienced its loving, life-giving powers which rescued other stars. But, ironically, they became the fathers, the guides, the pied pipers, of the greatest youth and freedom movement of history which began in the fifties and sixties with the birth of rock and roll. 

Fittingly, these living legends – most of whom grew up on and loved comic books -- took on the fantastic, magical names of child superheroes: Morrison became the Lizard King; Lennon, the Walrus; Elvis the King of Rock; Janis, the Queen of the Blues; Garcia Captain Trips; Hendrix, the Voodoo child.