George Harrison Said He Didn’t Like Being in New York Because of John Lennon’s Death
George Harrison said he didn’t like being in New York following John Lennon‘s death. Mark David Chapman murdered his former bandmate in front of his New York City apartment building, the Dakota, in 1980.
George Harrison got a call in the middle of the night about John Lennon’s death
In a 1988 interview on Aspel and Co., George explained that he’d been sleeping at his home, Friar Park, when he got the call about John’s death.
“The call came through sometime in the morning, four or five in the morning,” George said. “I didn’t take the call. Olivia took the call, and she said, ‘John’s been shot.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, how bad is it?’ I just thought maybe a flesh wound or something like that, but she said, ‘No, that’s it, he’s dead.’
“I just went back to sleep, actually. Maybe it was just a way of getting away from it. I just went to sleep and waited to see what it said the next morning, and he was still dead the next morning, unfortunately.”
According to Olivia, George initially thought Ringo Starr had died. She told BBC’s Women’s Hour, “All I can say about that moment was… You know, that phone call in the night, and you know it’s not good. And you don’t want to answer the phone, but you don’t have a choice… Someone said, ‘John’s dead.’
“And I thought you have 10 seconds to try and figure out how you’re going to break this news. I said… George actually said, ‘Who is it?’ And he thought it was Ringo. That was so sad, really, it was sad. We just didn’t know what to do. We just put the blankets over our heads and held on for a while.
“He said, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘It’s one of your mates, one of your mates.’ He said, ‘Ringo?’ I said, ‘No, John.’ Nobody could imagine that happening.”
George didn’t like going to New York following John’s death
During an interview on French TV, George said he was thankful he didn’t have to travel to New York very much.
“Not New York; I had three days in New York in January,” George said, agreeing with the interviewer that that was long enough. “Yeah, that was a lot of stress. I don’t like New York and also because it has a bad memory for me, you know, because of John Lennon. I don’t like to be in New York.”
George didn’t like going to New York after John’s death, but his former bandmate’s death still haunted him in other ways.
George stepped up security, but it didn’t help
Interestingly, in a 1987 interview, George wasn’t overly concerned about his safety following John’s death. “Everybody likes to say, ‘OK, one of your best friends got assassinated, so surely you must be nervous about being assassinated too,'” George continued. “You know, I like to take care, but I don’t walk around fearing for my life.”
George didn’t live in fear and didn’t think anyone would want to murder him too. “I don’t think anybody could be bothered killing me,” he said. “What’s the point of killing me? There’s nothing. I don’t feel that important.”
However, George’s actions spoke louder than words. Friend Michael Palin said, “For a while afterwards, George was extremely concerned about his own safety. There’s plenty of cranks out there who think carbon copy shooting. ‘Maybe we can get two or three of them now.’
“All those nasty things, which you sort of laughed at before Lennon’s death, suddenly must have become rather more serious. I think it was a bit more difficult to get in to see George for a while after that.”
The Guardian added, “The murder prompted the band’s surviving members to take elaborate security precautions. George Harrison was reported to have spent more than £1m protecting from intruders the Oxfordshire mansion he has lived in since 1971.
“He was given local council permission to place razor wire along the perimeter of the 34 acre property. Infrared sensors, security lighting, CCTV and electronic gates were installed. The cameras connected to a control room in the 15 bed room property and the alarm system linked to a nearby police station.
Still, George’s relaxed demeanor and security precautions got him nowhere when Michael Abrams decided to break in and attack George and his family in 1999. The Guardian wrote, “Henley-on-Thames residents said fences were sometimes in disrepair, while the thick shrubbery surrounding the estate offered cover to intruders.”
Thanks to Friar Park’s partially weak defenses, Abrams scaled a perimeter wall and walked up the drive. He stabbed George multiple times until Olivia hit him over the head with a poker. So, like George’s feelings about New York, Friar Park could’ve become a site of bad memories for those closest to him.
