Can a piano make peace in the world? George Michael thinks so.
Pop star George Michael has been most noted in recent times for falling asleep in possession of drugs or for being caught having sex in public places with men who are not his fiancé. Maybe Michael got tired of the jokes at his expense and decided it was time for a public relations makeover or maybe, just, maybe he was inspired by something greater. Whatever the motivation, his latest move involves promoting world peace with John Lennon’s piano.
Michael bought the Steinway Model Z upright piano on which Lennon once composed his peace anthem “Imagine” at an auction for over 1.5 million pounds a couple of years ago . Now he has gone and put the piano on a tour of sites of past violence, with plans to have a documentary made about the project, proceeds going to unspecified charities. The piano has already visited the grassy knoll in Dallas where John F. Kennedy was shot. Yesterday the piano was photographed in Memphis, Tennessee to mark the 39th anniversary of the shooting of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. The tour will include the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the bombed federal building in Oklahoma City and the Branch Davidian compound destroyed in Waco, Texas.
George Michael sees the piano as the “heartbeat” of a project he hopes will provoke deep emotion in people with its symbolism and promote the idea of world peace. Lennon’s song and message continues to make its mark 27 years after his death. The song “Imagine” was banned from a school concert in Devon, England last year for being “anti -religous.” Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono took out a page in the New York Times to propose that the anniversary of her husband’s shooting, December 8, be made into an annual John Lennon Day, in which people ask forgiveness to those who have suffered at the hands of violence and war.
This article was published Friday, April 6, 2007.
