George Harrison Said Getting Back Together With The Beatles Would Be Like Going Back to School
George Harrison said getting back together with The Beatles would be like returning to school. His school years were a dark period, so relating his time with The Beatles to those days isn’t good. Mostly, George didn’t enjoy being with the famous rock group. John Lennon and Paul McCartney constantly pushed him and his songs aside. Meanwhile, he became increasingly uncomfortable with fame.
However, George loved his bandmates deep down and had some good memories with them. Still, he didn’t think The Beatles would get back together unless they were all broke.
George Harrison said The Beatles would only get back together if they were all broke
During a press conference in 1974 (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), George said that The Beatles would only get back together if they were all broke. George couldn’t fathom being put back in the box he lived in while he was Beatle George. Plus, he had worked with musicians he thought were better than his bandmates.
“The point is, it’s all a fantasy, the idea of putting the Beatles back together again,” George said. “If we ever do that, the reason will be that we are all broke. There’s more chance that we’ll do it because we’re broke than because … and even then … to play with the Beatles … I mean, I’d rather have Willie Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney.
“That’s the truth, with all respect to Paul. The Beatles was like being in a box—we got to that point. It’s taken me years to be able to play with other musicians. Because we were so isolated it becomes very difficult playing the same tunes day in, day out. Since I made ‘All Things Must Pass,’ it’s just so nice for me to be able to play with other musicians.
“I don’t think the Beatles were that good. I think they’re fine, you know. Ringo’s got the best backbeat I’ve ever heard… Paul is a fine bass player … but he’s a bit overpowering at times. John’s gone through all of his scene, but he’s like me, he’s come back around.”
George said he’d join a band with John any day. However, he couldn’t say the same about Paul, with who George was least musically compatible. George hated it when Paul acted like the boss and treated him like a naughty schoolboy. Maybe that’s why George would’ve felt he was returning to school if he got back together with The Beatles.
George said getting back together with The Beatles would be like going back to school
During a 1977 interview with Count Down, George said getting back together with The Beatles would be like returning to school. He explained that they’d all changed and grown. It would be like going backward.
Count Down pointed out that since The Beatles’ financial issues with their one-time manager, Allen Klein, were resolved, there seemed little in the band’s way to reunite.
“I mean, there’s little in the business side left in the way, but there’s a lot of other things,” George explained. “Just physically, we’re all in different places now, and we don’t spend time together anymore.
“That’s the problem; we’d have to get to know each other again because we haven’t sort of hung around together like we did in the past. So, I mean, everybody’s into their own lives. It seems very difficult, the idea of getting together, but it’s just a joke. I mean, it needs a joke when the last offer was for $50 million.
“It’s crazy, you know? It’s trying to put the responsibility of making the world a wonderful place again onto The Beatles. I think that’s unfair. I know a lot of people like The Beatles, but it’s like eight years ago we split up, and it’s like difficult.
“It’s like we all grew up and we left home; it’s like trying to get the family back again or trying to get us to go back to school again.”
The group almost reunited a couple of times.
Despite, what George said about The Beatles getting back together, the group almost reunited a couple of times. The first time they came close was in 1971. George invited his bandmates to come to perform at his benefit concert, the Concert for Bangladesh. Ringo Starr agreed, and, initially, so did John. However, since he couldn’t bring his wife, Yoko Ono, he eventually backed out. Paul denied playing because of The Beatles’ legal issues.
Then, in 1976, on an episode of NBC’s Saturday Night (Later Saturday Night Live), producer Lorne Michaels cut in to speak directly to The Beatles to offer them $3,000 to play three songs on SNL.
Paul was visiting John that night, and the pair watched Michaels’ live plea. They even considered going to receive the cash but decided against it.
Then, in 1979, they came close to performing live together at Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd’s wedding. However, John couldn’t attend because of visa issues.
As George said, the idea of The Beatles getting back together was difficult to comprehend. It was unfair that people always seemed to have the idea in their minds. In 1979, George told Rolling Stone, “They’ve got lots and lots of songs they can play forever. But what do they want? Blood?
“They want us all to die like Elvis Presley? We were just four relatively sane people in the middle of madness. People used us as an excuse to trip out, and we were the victims of that. That’s why they want the Beatles to go on, so they can all get silly again. But they don’t have consideration for our well-being when they say, ‘Let’s have the Fab Four again.'”
George didn’t want to appease the fans who wanted The Beatles to go. It would’ve been his nightmare.
