George Harrison Told a Flight Attendant to ‘F*** off’ for Interrupting Him

In the 1960s, George Harrison began dedicating himself to enriching his spiritual life in all places, even on flights. He believed that chanting to Krishna even saved him from a plane crash. According to his first wife, Pattie Boyd, however, Harrison initially struggled to balance his spirituality and the “pleasures of the flesh.” When a flight attendant interrupted him to offer a glass of wine, he responded rudely.

The musician dedicated himself to cultivating his spirituality 

Harrison rose to fame as a teenager and remained in the public eye until his death in 2001. Despite his lengthy tenure in the music industry, he grew weary of fame only a few years into his time with The Beatles. For Harrison, spirituality allowed him to look beyond the scope of fame.

“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.'”

His embrace of spirituality impacted both his personal life and his music.

George Harrison snapped at a flight attendant for interrupting him

According to Boyd, Harrison oscillated between two extremes: constant meditation and constant partying. 

“He would be spiritual and clean and would meditate for hour after hour, with no chance of normality,” she wrote in the book Wonderful Tonight. “During those periods he was totally withdrawn and I felt alone and isolated. Then, as if all the pleasures of the flesh were too hard to resist, he would stop meditating, snort coke, have fun, flirting and partying. Although it was more companionable, there was no normality in that either.”

When he was meditating or chanting, which became a vital part of his spiritual practice, he didn’t want any sort of temptation. Apparently, he could be rude if someone offered him a worldly distraction.

“He wanted to reach the spiritual place to which he aspired, but the pleasures of the flesh were too tempting,” Boyd wrote. “[Press officer] Derek Taylor was on a plane with George, who was chanting in his seat when a stewardess asked if he’d like a glass of wine. Furious at the intrusion, George told her to ‘F*** off.'”

George Harrison believed that chanting on one flight saved his life

After a harrowing experience on a plane, Harrison believed he had good reason to chant Hare Krishna during flights.

“Once I was on an airplane that was in an electric storm,” he said. “It was hit by lightning three times, and a Boeing 707 went over the top of us, missing by inches.”

He believed that his survival depended on chanting for the entirety of the ordeal, which he said lasted “about an hour and a half or two hours.”

“I ended up with my feet pressed against the seat in front, my seat belt as tight as it could be, gripping on the thing, and yelling Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare at the top of my voice,” he said. “I know for me, the difference between making it and not making it was actually chanting the mantra.”