George Harrison and John Lennon Had a ‘Shouting Match’ Onstage After Harrison Threw Food
George Harrison and John Lennon were close in the early days of The Beatles, but they, like everyone else in the band, still argued. Their fights in later years grew far more bitter, but early on, they argued over trivial matters. Lennon recalled getting into an argument with Harrison during a performance. Harrison struggled to remember the specific fight, but he admitted it was likely because things like that often happened.
John Lennon didn’t like George Harrison at first
Lennon did not like Harrison when they first met. Paul McCartney had pushed for the younger boy to join their band, and Lennon felt that his age was detrimental to the group.
“George was the youngest, and it was obvious,” author Tony Bramwell said, per the book George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door by Graeme Thomson. “He looked very young, even younger than his years. John Lennon didn’t particularly like him and didn’t want him in the band. He regarded him as too young, a kid, but Paul was pushing for him.”
It didn’t help that Harrison wanted to spend as much time as possible with Lennon. He often tried to brush off his younger bandmate.
“He came round once and asked me to go to the pictures with him but I pretended I was busy,” Lennon said. “I didn’t dig him on first sight.”
They started yelling at each other during a performance
Eventually, though, Lennon softened toward Harrison. Still, they got into trivial arguments that were often sparked by overwork and exhaustion.
“All the arguments were just trivial, mainly because we were f***ed and irritable with working so hard,” Lennon said, per The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “We were just kids as well. George threw some food at me once onstage.”
He explained that they often ate and drank onstage, which provided Harrison with his ammunition.
“We usually ate onstage as we were onstage so long,” Lennon explained. “The waiters would send us up beer onstage as well as food, so now and again we’d end up getting pissed while we were playing. Anyway, this time George threw some food at me over something stupid. I said I would smash his face in for him. We had a shouting match onstage, but that was all. I never did anything.”
Harrison couldn’t remember the specific argument, but he believed it happened.
“John threw all kinds of stuff over everybody, over the years,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “I can’t remember that happening, but if he said it it must have happened. There were times when he did throw stuff.”
George Harrison once scared John Lennon with his anger
After The Beatles broke up, Lennon and Harrison had more vicious arguments. Once, Lennon and his girlfriend May Pang met with Harrison. He began yelling at Lennon for not supporting him. Harrison became increasingly upset until he ripped Lennon’s glasses off his face.
“Suddenly, he reached over, yanked John’s glasses from his face, and dashed them to the floor,” Pang wrote in her book Loving John. “His face was a mask of fury and contempt; I had never seen an angrier man. George’s anger even paralyzed John.”
Though he was furious, Harrison wholeheartedly apologized the following day.
