George Harrison Said the Public Thought He Was a ‘Freak’: ‘I Was the Crackers Beatle’
To the press and the public, George Harrison was the Quiet Beatle. He didn’t give many wordy interviews, especially compared to his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. While his friends said he wasn’t as quiet as he was made out to be, he didn’t think the media accepted it. Harrison believed the press and public thought he was a “freak.”
George Harrison got the public reputation as the ‘Quiet Beatle’
Harrison’s reputation as the Quiet Beatle began because of McCartney and Lennon. They wrote many of The Beatles’ hits, and they spoke the most often in interviews. Despite this, his wife Olivia said that Harrison was very verbose.
“George was bold, and he was very provocative,” Olivia told the LA Times. “I don’t know how many times I jabbed him in the ribs at some function when he’d make one of his comments. I’d tell him, ‘Don’t go there, don’t start,’ but he liked to have fun with people. He always could break the ice.”
George Harrison said the public and media thought he was a freak
Harrison knew that he wasn’t the Quiet Beatle, but he was resentful of the way people had labeled him.
“They always dubbed me the Quiet One, the Reclusive One, the Business One,” he said, per the book The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break Up. “Just because I wasn’t in the nightclubs all the time they thought I was some kind of freak or something.”
Harrison recognized that after he focused on his spirituality, particularly his devotion to Krishna, the public and press had a specific view of him.
“After I bought the Krishna’s Letchmore Heath Manor in Hertfordshire, that confirmed it for the newspapers,” Harrison said. “I was the crackers Beatle. The public had some idea of me being locked away for years on end, chanting and ringing my bells but I was never a devout Hare Krishna, although I do still chant and stuff.”
Tom Petty said he wasn’t the Quiet Beatle
Olivia knew Harrison wasn’t the Quiet Beatle, and so did his friend, Tom Petty. Petty got to know Harrison while in The Traveling Wilburys, and they became close friends. He knew the former Beatle had a lot to say.
“Well, he never shut up,” Petty said in 2002, per The Petty Archives. “George had a lot to say. Boy, did he have a lot to say. That’s hysterical to me, you know, that he was known as the quiet one. I assume he got that name because the other ones were so much louder. I mean, they were very loud people.”
Petty said that Harrison could be brutally honest, but even though it hurt, it could be endearing.
“I’ll tell you, nobody I’ve encountered ever lived his life more every day than George did,” he said. “He crammed in a lot of living and didn’t waste his time. And he had an idea a minute. Some nights he would have so many great ideas. George really said everything that crossed his mind. I used to say, “You really can’t get a thought to your brain without it slipping out your mouth.” And he was painfully honest. It was an endearing trait, but sometimes you hoped that he wouldn’t be quite as honest as he was going to be.”
