Cornflakes with John Lennon: a Book Review

Robert Hilburn and John Lennon in 1980
Photo by Bob Gruen 

 A few weeks ago, someone in the comments asked me whether Robert Hiburn was in a photo of John Lennon posted on this site.  My answer was that I was very familiar with the reviews and interviews from the L.A. Time journalist, I had no idea what Robert Hilburn looked like.  That led me to Google his name and discover that he had written a memoir of his life as a journalist titled  Cornflakes With John Lennon.  I bought the Kindle ebook version and read it this past week.  

First of all, if you buy this book thinking it is going to be all about John Lennon due to the title, you will be disappointed.   Fortunately, I read the Amazon reviews and knew what I was getting myself into.   

Bob Hilburn lived an interesting life as a young person growing up in the South in the 1950s.  He was greatly influenced by country music and rock 'n' roll (particularly Elvis). He used his knowledge and passion for music to build relationships with the rockers he interviewed for the L.A. Times. 

The stories he told about spending time with John both in LA during the Lost Weekend era and in 1980 during the making of Double Fantasy are great.   He obviously has a lot of love for John and has a John bias.  I loved his story about how, during the making of Double Fantasy, he kept seeing John sneaking over to a cupboard and doing something.  Bob assumed it was drugs of some sort until John asked him if he wanted any, and he said that John was sneaking a chocolate bar!  He didn't want Yoko to know about it.  

Bob was at the Dakota in the aftermath of John's murder and spoke with Yoko and the words that Yoko said to him brought tears to my eyes.  

Bob obviously disliked Paul McCartney and George Harrison didn't want anything to do with the guy.  He doesn't even mention Ringo.  

The rest of the book is full of stories of his time with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, Bono, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, and others. I am not a Springsteen fan, so I found those chapters to drag on and bore me.  Obviously, he is a good writer and all of his stories were interesting, just some were artists I wasn't too familiar with or don't care much about.   

It was an interesting enough book and now I know much more about the man so that if someone asks me again on this site about him, I will have more knowledge, but it isn't a book I will ever want to read again.  

If this book interests you, however, and you want to purchase it for yourself.  Please consider using the Amazon affiliate link below.  I receive a very small percentage of anything purchased through this link, which I, in turn, use to pay for the yearly fee to keep this site ad-free and online.   Thank you for your support. 

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