George Harrison Said Paul McCartney Could Be a ‘Hypocrite’ and Quoted Bob Dylan to Prove It

George Harrison and Paul McCartney rose to fame together, but they didn’t always feel a sense of camaraderie. They butted heads both in The Beatles and outside of it. Harrison was once so frustrated with McCartney’s actions that he described him as a hypocrite. While explaining why he believed this, he referenced a quote from his friend, Bob Dylan.

George Harrison didn’t appreciate the way Paul McCartney and John Lennon treated him

While in The Beatles, Harrison grew increasingly frustrated that his bandmates and their audiences often overlooked his efforts. 

‘I’d put on ‘Paperback Writer’ and say, ‘I love the guitar on that,’ and he’d say, ‘Oh, that’s Paul.’ I put all these other Beatles tracks on: ‘Oh, that’s Paul,’” musician Peter Frampton told the Daily Mail. “It wasn’t until then I realized he had been stifled. It was very frustrating for George.”

Before The Beatles broke up, Harrison even informed his bandmates that he was quitting.

“You can replace me,” he reportedly said. “Put an ad in the New Musical Express and get a few people in. See you round the clubs.”

He described his former bandmate as a hypocrite

In 1988, The Beatles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Only Harrison and Ringo Starr were at the ceremony. John Lennon had died in 1980, and McCartney chose not to go. The band was reportedly feuding over royalties.

“Well, unfortunately, you know, Paul is a hypocrite sometimes because right before we had that Hall of Fame thing, you know, we’d not been friends for a number of years and we spent a long time really getting to know each other again, and it was so sad really that Paul should use an old business kind of thing and superimpose it on that situation with the Hall of Fame,” Harrison said, per the book George Harrison on George Harrison. “And it’s sad really that he’s like that.”

He added that he was frustrated because the former bandmates had been repairing their professional relationship and their friendship. Harrison also explained that McCartney missed a good night. He referenced a quote from Dylan as evidence.

“It was just a shame that Paul should use, like, a sort of political sort of situation. Because I think all he’s done is miss a great night out, miss meeting Little Richard, and all the old guys, and Dylan. And also, I think it put another nail in his own coffin as far as him as a person because, you know, as Bob Dylan said at the Hall of Fame, ‘Love and peace is one thing, but we all have to have forgiveness too.’”

Paul McCartney recalled the last time he saw George Harrison

In 2001, Harrison died of cancer. His relationship with McCartney was in a better place at that point, and they saw each other before his death.

“I sat with him for a few hours when he was in treatment just outside New York,” McCartney told Uncut. “He was about 10 days away from his death, as I recall. We joked about things — just amusing, nutty stuff. It was good. It was like we were dreaming. He was my little baby brother, almost, because I’d known him that long. We held hands. It’s funny, even at the height of our friendship — as guys — you would never hold hands. It just wasn’t a Liverpool thing. But it was lovely.”