George Harrison Admitted He Felt ‘Embarrassed’ After Going a Full Year Without Making Music
For a good portion of his time with The Beatles, George Harrison fought to have his bandmates take his music seriously. He wanted to be a songwriter and contribute to the band’s albums like John Lennon and Paul McCartney did. When the band broke up, Harrison finally had the chance to showcase his music in the ways he’d always wanted. After less than a decade, though, he tired of the music industry altogether. He admitted he went a full year without making any music, a fact that eventually embarrassed him out of his semi-retirement.
George Harrison admitted he completely turned away from music in 1977
After nearly two decades in the music industry, Harrison completely stepped away from music in 1977. He said he didn’t so much as write a song.
“Well, all of 1977 I didn’t write a song, I didn’t do anything; I was not working at all really, so I decided I’d better start doing something,” he told Rolling Stone. “I’d just turned off from the music business altogether.”
He said he didn’t have the ego required to maintain his career. He’d been in The Beatles, which completely satisfied any desire he had for fame.
“Really, it comes down to ego,” he said. “You have to have a big ego in order to keep plodding on being in the public eye. If you want to be popular and famous, you can do it; it’s dead easy if you have that ego desire. But most of my ego desires as far as being famous and successful were fulfilled a long time ago.”
George Harrison felt so embarrassed that he started making music again
After a year off from music, Harrison realized it was time to dust off any cobwebs around his creativity.
“[I]t got to be the end of 1977 and I thought, ‘God, I’d better do something.’”
He admitted he began to feel a little embarrassed, as people constantly asked him about putting out more music.
“I was getting embarrassed because I was going to all these motor races, and everybody was talking to me like George, the ex-Beatle, the musician, asking me if I was making a record and whether I was going to write some songs about racing, and yet musical thoughts were just a million miles away from my mind.”
He also realized, after meeting race car driver Niki Lauda, that his music meant something to people.
“And then what really touched me was meeting Niki Lauda,” he said. “I have a great respect for him. After that crash he went through in 1976, I felt really bad for him and I was very happy when he didn’t die … Anyway, I talked to him once after he had won the world championship again, in 1977 at Watkins Glen, and he was talking about all the bulls*** in his business – the politics and the hassles – and he was saying how he just likes to go home and relax and play some nice music. And I thought, ‘S***, I’m going to go and write some tunes, because these people are all relating to me as a musician, and yet I’m here just skiving; maybe I can write a song that Niki on his day off may enjoy.’ So that was it.”
He admitted his record label also helped him come out of his break
While Harrison was thinking about his fans, he also wanted to satisfy his record label. He said they were patient with him, and he didn’t want to let them down.
“The other side of it, too, is that my friends at Warner Bros., who I have a deal with, they never ask, ‘Why aren’t you doing anything?’ They always treat me very civil, but at the same time I was thinking, ‘Well, it’s been awhile . . .’ They may start to think, ‘What are we doin’ with this fella?’”
