Eric Idle on the Most Special Aspect of His Friendship With George Harrison
Eric Idle and George Harrison had a lot in common. They had similar roles in their respective groups. George had to compete with John Lennon and Paul McCartney in The Beatles. Idle had to do the same with John Cleese and Michael Palin in Monty Python. The two long-time friends also shared a love of comedy.
However, Idle said the most special aspect of his friendship with George was something simple.
Eric Idle and George Harrison began a 48-hour dialogue the first time they met
Contrary to popular belief, George wasn’t the “quiet Beatle.” His other long-time friend, Tom Petty, said he wouldn’t shut up. When they first hung out together, George and Petty talked for hours into the next day.
George did that often. When he found someone he knew he wanted to be friends with, George had to get to know them immediately. He did that when he met Idle as well.
In his memoir, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography, Idle wrote about meeting George at a Monty Python and the Holy Grail screening.
Idle wrote, “I had heard that George wanted to meet me, but I was somewhat shy of meeting him. I was shy and tried to avoid him, but he snuck up on me in the back of the theater as the credits began to roll. I hadn’t yet learned he was unstoppable.
“We began a conversation that would last about twenty-four hours. Who could resist his opening line? ‘We can’t talk here. Let’s go and have a reefer in the projection booth.’ No telling what the startled projectionist felt as a Beatle came in with one of the actors from the movie he had just projected and lit up a joint.”
Idle couldn’t get rid of George after that.
Later, the pair went to dinner with Terry Gilliam and George’s wife, Olivia Harrison. Then, George insisted Idle come with him to A&M Studios, “where we talked and talked and talked for the rest of the night.”
In Martin Scorsese’s documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Idle said they engaged in a 48-hour dialogue where they talked about their similar roles. “What was it like to be a Python? What was it like to be a Beatle? A thousand questions,” Idle continued.
Eric Idle on the most special aspect of his friendship with George Harrison
In a recent interview with Yahoo!, Idle discussed his long friendship with George. The comedian revealed the most special aspect of their relationship.
“He was a remarkable man,” Idle said. “He really changed my life. Because we just talked. I’d never had a friend like that. When I first met him, after a screening of ‘Holy Grail’ at the Director’s Guild, we went and had dinner and then went to the studio where he was recording.
“And he said, ‘Do you want to meet Joni?’ I said, ‘What? Absolutely, I want to meet Joni!’ So, I met Joni Mitchell that night. And then we went back to the hotel and we talked all night. It was like, ‘What was your John like?’ — we were kind of both similar roles in our groups, maybe not the most biggest or most important members, but we weren’t terrible either! So, we bonded like that.”
Talking was the most important part of Idle and George’s friendship, and they didn’t only talk about their similar roles or their love of comedy.
The Beatle and comedian talked a lot about death
In the mid-1960s, George became spiritual. Meanwhile, Idle was an atheist. However, that didn’t mean that their long talks were never about religion. George’s spirituality taught him that dying was like taking your suit off and the most important thing someone can do. Going to the spiritual realm was all George truly cared about. There, he’d be with God. So, George didn’t exactly take his material life seriously.
Still, Idle and George’s conversations about death were some of their more interesting ones.
“I was with him on his deathbed,” Idle told Yahoo! “I would rather be with somebody when they’re dying than not be with somebody when they’re dying — especially a friend like him, who always talked about death.
“When we first met a long time ago, in 1975, he said, ‘You can have all the money in the world and all the fame in the world, but you’re still going to have to die.’ He would always take that position, and it sort of resonated with me, because a lot of my songs are about death, even ‘Keep on the Bright Side.’
“So, when he came to pass away, unlike most people, he’d been preparing for this moment for the previous 25 years. And he was prepared to go. He died in the Hindu faith, and he was very happy he wouldn’t have to be reborn! [laughs] Actually, I wouldn’t mind being reborn, but I’m just a silly old English atheist. It was the only thing we ever didn’t see eye-to-eye on, but we’d have long conversations about it.”
Even though Idle wasn’t spiritual, he still called George his spiritual guru. Idle connected with something George always said about death. His friend always reminded him that everyone dies one day. So that meant you had to live in the here and now.
Idle recently battled cancer, which George died of in 2001, but he took the lessons George taught him and pushed through it. All Idle can do is live in the here and now.
