{"id":333611,"date":"2025-12-06T14:38:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T14:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/333611\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T14:38:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T14:38:06","slug":"double-fantasy-producer-recalls-wild-court-battle-with-yoko-ono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/333611\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Double Fantasy’ Producer Recalls Wild Court Battle With Yoko Ono"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Douglas was the producer behind John Lennon<\/a>\u2019s final albums: 1980\u2019s Double Fantasy<\/a> and 1984\u2019s posthumously-released Milk and Honey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given his close relationship with Lennon and the musician\u2019s tragic murder, Douglas initially didn\u2019t make a big deal out of the money he was owed for the projects. But as the years went by, and royalty payments failed to come in, he approached Yoko Ono<\/a> to settle up the finances.<\/p>\n

What resulted was a bizarre court case that almost seems too strange to believe.<\/p>\n

Jann Wenner\u2019s Contradictory Testimony<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was being advised by a really bad guy,\u201d Douglas recalled during a recent podcast interview, noting that he was \u201cthe one guy\u201d Ono should have trusted given the circumstances.<\/p>\n

Though he tried to come to an agreement without a lawsuit, Douglas and Ono ended up in New York\u2019s Superior Court battling their dispute.<\/p>\n

One of the first witnesses Ono\u2019s team called to the stand was Jann Wenner<\/a>, founder of Rolling Stone magazine. According to Douglas, the media mogul was offered some exclusive content in exchange for his support.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe promised Jann that he could have [Lennon\u2019s] journal. If he came in and testified on her behalf,\u201d the producer claimed. \u201cOf course, she didn’t have the journal. Nobody had the journal.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: When ‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine Printed Its First Issue<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo Jan gets up there. And so her attorney is saying, \u2018So who was this Jack Douglas, anyway?\u2019\u201d the music veteran continued. “And Jann is saying, \u2018He was really a nobody\u2026Kind of an engineer. That’s all. I mean, John liked him. And he gave him a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his work with Lennon, Douglas\u2019 resume included major albums with the Who<\/a> and Aerosmith<\/a>. The producer was far from a \u201cnobody,\u201d and Wenner\u2019s words immediately came back to haunt him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now my attorney, Peter Parcher, gets up,\u201d Douglas recalled. \u201cAnd he’s got a book in his hand. And it’s Jann’s book. And he said, \u2018Jann, would you read this?\u2019 And it’s a chapter in his book where he talks about me being this producer. He makes Jann read it to the jury. And of course, that was terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phil Spector Takes the Stand \u2018Totally F—ed Up\u2019<\/p>\n

If Wenner\u2019s testimony was embarrassing, Phil Spector<\/a>\u2019s was downright comical. According to Douglas, the legendary \u2018wall of sound\u2019 producer appeared incapacitated in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhil is totally fucked up. He’s totally fucked up,\u201d Douglas declared. \u201cAnd he gets on the stand and they’re asking him questions. And he can’t make any sense out of even what they’re asking him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things only got worse when Spector\u2019s testimony was over.<\/p>\n

Record producer Phil Spector in the ’80s. Frank Edwards\/Fotos International, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Record producer Phil Spector in the ’80s. Frank Edwards\/Fotos International, Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now no more questions. He gets up and he stumbles,\u201d Douglas recalled. \u201cAnd as he stumbles out of the witness box, his wig goes sideways. So now his sideburns are over his nose. And it was just a pathetic sight. And everybody was like, oh, my God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoko Hired a Witch?<\/p>\n

Besides those who were testifying, the court room was filled with supporters on both sides of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe room was divided by an aisle in the middle,\u201d Douglas remembered. \u201cI was sitting up front. [Yoko] wouldn’t sit up front because of assassination attempts. So she was sitting crowded by her people.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Top 10 Yoko Ono Songs<\/a><\/p>\n

Each day, Douglas made a point of thanking everyone who was sitting on his side showing their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be the same people every day,\u201d he recalled. \u201cSame people. And I would come in. And I always [say], \u2018Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for coming by.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there was one guy. He was sitting almost directly behind me,\u201d the producer continued. \u201cAnd I’d say, \u2018Thank you so much for coming in.\u2019 And he would just look at me. He wouldn’t even say anything. Just look at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Douglas further recalled this mystery man staring at him throughout the legal proceedings. \u201cI could see the guy’s eyes boring into the back of me\u2026 And then one day, he was gone.”<\/p>\n

The producer soon discovered the man\u2019s mystical backstory.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now, (acclaimed rock photographer) Bob Gruen, because he worked with Yoko, had to sit on Yoko’s side,\u201d Douglas explained. \u201cAnd Bob and I are very good friends. So Bob and I would meet in the men’s room, so we could talk. And Bob said to me, \u2018Boy, you fucked that guy up.\u2019 So I said, \u2018What guy? He’s going, \u2018That witch that Yoko hired to put a spell on you. He was sitting directly behind you. He went up to Yoko, and he said, I can’t get anywhere with this guy. Every day, he comes in and thanks me. He smiles. He pats me on the back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Douglas and Yoko Ono Mend Their Relationship<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for the jury to find in Douglas\u2019 favor, awarding him over $2.5 million in royalties. Some years later, he and Ono were able to make peace at one of Sean Lennon\u2019s concerts at the Bowery Ballroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was upstairs. I was sitting downstairs. (25:52) And somebody came downstairs and said, Yoko would like you to come up to the table,\u201d Douglas recalled. And I came up, and I went upstairs, and she gave me a big hug. And she said, really, a lot of water has run onto the bridge. And then we started working on little things together.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, the two remain close. Douglas has been a guest at Ono\u2019s art exhibits and still receives a Christmas card from her every year. \u201cWe stay in touch,\u201d the producer confirmed. \u201cI love her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Best Song From Every John Lennon Album<\/p>\n

One of the 20th century’s most significant artists had a solo catalog that can be as maddening as it is enlightening.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Douglas was the producer behind John Lennon\u2019s final albums: 1980\u2019s Double Fantasy and 1984\u2019s posthumously-released Milk and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,3],"class_list":{"0":"post-333611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}