George Harrison Said He Met ‘Every Political and Religious Leader There Is’ and None Impressed Him
TL;DR:
- George Harrison often discussed his spiritual beliefs.
- George Harrison said that political and spiritual leaders hadn’t impressed him.
- Ravi Shankar was the first person who impressed George Harrison.
George Harrison had a reputation as the Quiet Beatle, but he wasn’t afraid to share his opinion, even if it was a bit harsh. During a photoshoot that Harrison clearly wasn’t happy to be a part of, he spoke about how difficult he was to impress. He said that being on the cover of a magazine didn’t mean much to him. He also shared that of all the musicians, politicians, and religious leaders he’d met in his life, only one had ever impressed him.
George Harrison often discussed his religious and spiritual beliefs
Harrison rose to global fame as a teenager, and by the time he was in his twenties, he felt weary of his popularity. For him, the antidote to this was spirituality.
“It wasn’t until the experience of the 60s really hit,” he said in 1982, per The Guardian. “You know, having been successful and meeting everybody we thought worth meeting and finding out they weren’t worth meeting, and having had more hit records than everybody else and having done it bigger than everybody else. It was like reaching the top of a wall and then looking over and seeing that there’s so much more on the other side. So I felt it was part of my duty to say, ‘Oh, OK, maybe you are thinking this is all you need — to be rich and famous — but actually it isn’t.'”
He began devoting himself to meditating and chanting Hare Krishna.
George Harrison said that no political or religious leader impressed him
His spirituality didn’t entirely cure Harrison of his aversion to the trappings of fame. During a photoshoot with Rolling Stone, Harrison seemed visibly unhappy to have his picture taken. This prompted the photographer’s wife to ask him, “Don’t you want to be on the cover of Rolling Stone?”
“Can I possibly tell you how little that means to me?” he said, per the book George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door by Graeme Thomson. “I’ve been on every magazine cover there is. I’ve been all over the world, and met every political and religious leader there is to meet, and none of them impressed me – let alone the world of pop music.”
He explained that the first person to ever impress him was Ravi Shankar, an Indian musician.
“The first person who ever impressed me was Ravi Shankar, because he helped show me a way beyond all that,” Harrison said. “‘Don’t I want to be on the cover of Rolling Stone?’ I couldn’t care less.”
He quickly bonded with Ravi Shankar
Harrison met Shankar in the 1960s, after playing the sitar on The Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood.” Shankar offered to teach Harrison more about Indian music, and he gladly accepted.
“I had heard of the Beatles, but I didn’t know how popular they were,” Shankar told Rolling Stone in 1997. “I met all four, but with George, I clicked immediately. He said he wanted to learn [sitar] properly. I said it’s not just learning chords, like the guitar. Sitar takes at least one year to [learn to] sit properly because the instrument is so difficult to hold. Then you cut your fingers to this extent [shows tips of two fingers – purple, with calluses]. He said he would try. He seemed so sweet and sincere that I believed it.”
Shankar described the way their relationship was after decades of knowing each other.
“[Harrison] gives me tremendous respect,” he said. “He’s very Indian that way. We are such good friends, and at the same time, he is like my son, so it’s a beautiful, mixed feeling.”
