"The Japanese-American musician, artist and political activist Yoko Ono is one of the most controversial figures in rock & roll music.Raised in an affluent family in Tokyo, Yoko Ono was the first woman admitted to study philosophy at Japan's Gakushuin University, although she stayed at the school for just over a year before moving to the States to attend Sarah Lawrence College. Yoko eventually dropped out and became immersed in the Fluxus movement pioneered by conceptual artists and in the early ‘60s her work was exhibited (or performed, as many involved audience participation) throughout New York, Tokyo and London, where she first met John Lennon at the Indica Gallery in 1966. At the time Lennon was married to his wife Cynthia (with whom he had son Julian,) but the attraction between Yoko and John proved too strong and once Lennon's divorce was finalized they became constant companions. By that time the couple had already recorded the tapes that would be later issued as Two Virgins (accompanied by the notorious nude cover shots which resulted in much controversy upon their release three days after Lennon's divorce.)If Lennon was already feeling stagnant in his role with the Beatles, then Yoko Ono served as an avenue through which he could explore avant-garde within music, film and all other artistic mediums. The couple became inseparable and Yoko's influence over the iconic Lennon has been seen by many Beatles fans as the reason for the band's breakup. Lennon and Ono were married in 1969 in Gibraltar and honeymooned in Amsterdam, holding their first ""Bed-in for Peace"" in their suite at the Amsterdam Hilton. The couple tried to hold a similar political demonstration in the States but was refused entry due to drug charges, so they resumed the bed-in in Montreal and later that year recorded ""Give Peace a Chance"" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel with Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers and several Hare Krishnas in the background.In 1969 Lennon announced plans to depart the Beatles just one month after he performed with Yoko, Eric Clapton, Alan White and Klaus Voormann in Toronto as the Plastic Ono Band. Controversy followed the Lennons, who continued their peace campaign, and came to a head when the official announcement of the Beatles breakup came in 1970 and Yoko was placed in front of the firing squad. In 1975 Yoko gave birth to Sean Ono Lennon and for the next five years the family remained in speculation, until the couple signed with the newly-formed Geffen Records in 1980 and released Double Fantasy shortly afterward. That December Lennon was shot seven times by Mark David Chapman while walking with Yoko in New York and pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.In the years subsequent to John Lennon's death, Yoko Ono seemingly disappeared from the spotlight, but has remained politically active and musically experimental."