The 22-year-old offspring of Beatle John and Yoko Ono thinks a conspiracy worthy of a three-hour Stone diatribe (see JFK) is behind his father's 1980 shooting death.
"He was a counterculture revolutionary, and the government takes that kind of shit really seriously historically," the Columbia University dropout tells this week's New Yorker.
Adds Sean: "[My father] was dangerous to the government. If he had said, 'Bomb the White House tomorrow,' there would have been 10,000 people who would have done it. These pacifist revolutionaries are historically killed by the government."
The official story fingers Mark David Chapman, noted Catcher in the Rye enthusiast, as the lone assassin in the murder outside Lennon's Manhattan apartment.
Sean, who was five years old when his father died, begs to disagree with the official story.
"Anybody who thinks that Mark Chapman was just some crazy guy who killed my dad for his personal interests is insane, I think, or very naive," he says.
Unlike Stone, Sean is not consumed with conspiracy theories. He also tends to a budding music career. His debut record, the Beach Boys-influenced Into the Sun, is building strong buzz.
Other tidbits from the New Yorker interview:
On his childhood: He led "as close to a normal childhood as one could have if you were John Lennon's kid: the only thing that was different was that I had only two detectives with guns following me everywhere." On Yoko's advice regarding higher education: "My mother was like, 'Why are you going to Columbia? Go to fucking N.Y.U. and study art!" On his collaboration with Yoko on her 1995 album, Rising: "I said, 'Mom, let's make some Plastic Ono Band-style shit!'" In the end, Sean Lennon says, his music will help set him apart from his famous parents.
Besides, the son says, "If you go to a high school today and ask kids to tell you the difference between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, they don't even know what band they were in."