As difficult as it may be for several music enthusiasts to comprehend, some individuals in the twenty-first century never once have heard of John Lennon. As a co-founder of the trailblazing rock group the Beatles and as a solo artist, Lennon created a legacy that today’s Auto-Tuned celebrities are hard to match. Another bizarre truth is that a dentist spent $31,200 on John Lennon’s teeth and intends to use this to clone the deceased artist.
To suggest that John Lennon altered the course of mainstream culture in the 1960s is an exaggeration. The guy identified to followers as “Winston O. Boogie” was born on October 9, 1940, and was raised in Liverpool, England by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George. Despite the fact that John Lennon did not live with his mom, Julia, she educated him to play the banjo and supported his blossoming musical talents.
Julia purchased John Lennon a Gallotone Champion acoustic guitar in 1957 and showed him how to tune it. That same year, Lennon dropped out of Quarry Bank Grammar School and formed his first group, the Quarrymen, a skiffle-rock outfit. Soon after, rhythm guitarist Paul McCartney and bassist Stuart Sutcliffe entered the adolescent band. Julia Lennon died in 1958, and guitarist George Harrison joined the trio.
The group’s name was altered to the Silver Beatles in 1960, but they quickly dropped the first section in favour of a shorter moniker: the Beatles. After a run of gigs in Hamburg, Germany, the band performed a lunchtime set at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, which so captivated NEMS music shop boss Brian Epstein that he became the group’s manager.
McCartney had transitioned to the bass guitar by August 1962, and Richard “Ringo” Starkey had taken his place behind the drums. It was the birth of the ensemble that would transform the world with hits like “Please Please Me,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Back in the USSR,” and “Let It Be.”
The members of the band were genuine worldwide giants. According to some accounts, Lennon was aware that anything as little as one of his teeth could become an item of Beatles memorabilia.
Who on the planet would pay money for John Lennon’s tooth?
John Lennon's discarded tooth for £30,000? Bargain – https://t.co/TMRTjcYVjQ pic.twitter.com/XxrTpDSwsg
— NME (@NME) November 26, 2015
Around 1965 and 1968, the rocker had a molar pulled and handed it to his housekeeper, who preserved it as a form of John Lennon memorabilia, according to KnowledgeNuts.
According to the UK-based dentistry firm The Perfect Smile, Lennon removed the tooth unaided in his kitchen. That’s how his maid, Dot Jarlett, came to hold the tooth, which she kept till it was put up for auction for more than $30,000 in 2011.
Omega Auctions estimated John Lennon’s teeth to fetch roughly £10,000 ($12,300), as per the International Business Times. Dr. Michael Zuk, a general dentist, was the top bidder, paying £19,500 ($31,200) for the decaying tooth. Zuk, who is now retired, had a dental business in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
Zuk gave a part of the teeth to his sister, sculptor Kirsten Zuk, who used it in a sculpture of John Lennon. Dr. Zuk released a press statement in 2013 announcing his intention to send the now-famous molar for genetic analysis and DNA sequencing.
“I am nervous and excited at the possibility that we will be able to fully sequence John Lennon’s DNA very soon, I hope,” the dentist said. “With researchers working on ways to clone mammoths, the same technology certainly could make human cloning a reality.”