George Harrison’s Son Said He Had Trouble Giving Peter Jackson Notes for ‘Get Back’
When George Harrison died in 2001, he left behind the two people he loved most in the world: his wife, Olivia, and their only son, Dhani. Throughout the years, they have both safeguarded his legacy. Dhani has worked on remastering his father’s albums for years now. So much so that he’s mostly put his own career on pause.
Meanwhile, Olivia has always had the final say on all projects relating to her husband and has also worked hard to make sure George is remembered properly. She’s even scavenged Friar Park for all of George’s lost lyrics that he squirreled away around the house.
Now with Peter Jackson’s upcoming documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, set to dredge up some of the most horrible moments in George’s life, Dhani has a duty to make sure his father is portrayed respectfully. But, according to him, there’s nothing in Get Back he would change.
George Harrison’s son, Dhani, had no notes for Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’
During an interview with Esquire in August, Dhani said Peter Jackson respectfully got in touch with him about Get Back. He asked Dhani to give notes on the documentary. Jackson also wanted Dhani to let him know if there were any scenes of his father that he didn’t want Jackson to show. Dhani couldn’t think of a single thing to tell the director.
“Peter is a good friend, he’s a really great guy. I was asked to give notes, and I ended up not giving any because he’s Peter Jackson! He’s going to make it what he’s going to make it,” Dhani said.
“I went out to New Zealand, and the night that I got there was the night the lockdown went into effect—I nearly ended up getting stuck with Peter Jackson and the hobbits. But I’m so glad I managed to get there. I had one night viewing, he basically made a reel for me with all of my dad’s footage and I could see if there was anything I didn’t want in, anything I thought was bad or not tasteful, and it was all just beautiful. He was very complimentary about my dad’s behavior in all of the reels.”
So if Dhani enjoyed it, that should be a good sign, considering the musician wouldn’t let anything bad happen to his father’s legacy. At the very least, we know Get Back will be tasteful toward George.
Dhani watched footage of The Beatles snubbing George’s ‘All Things Must Pass’
There are other perks of being a child of one of The Beatles. Before anyone else, Dhani got to see the moment his father showed the band one of the songs that would later become one of the biggest hits of George’s career, “All Things Must Pass.”
The moment is intriguing because none of The Beatles gave the song a chance. If they had, it might have given The Beatles another hit, but instead, it became one of George’s most famous songs, on the first album by a solo Beatle that reached No. 1 on the charts.
“I got to see the moment when [George] played them ‘All Things Must Pass’ and they were kind of like, ‘meh,'” Dhani said. “They’re playing along with it, but it’s a swing and a miss. It’s funny, I’m really glad that at some point people will be able to see that moment having heard the way that All Things Must Pass turned out.”
The Beatles consistently overlooked George’s songwriting abilities. When they brushed aside George’s work, he started stockpiling songs. Eventually, he had so many that he had enough to record a whole album. Then he gave some away to other artists like Billy Preston. It’ll be interesting to see the moment George shows The Beatles “All Things Must Pass,” though. Hopefully, it made the cut.
Dhani says George was very ‘nonchalant’ about leaving The Beatles
Jackson’s Get Back will likely show George’s genuine frustration confined in one of the biggest bands in the world. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 1987, George said being in The Beatles was like being put in a little box where the world could examine him through microscopes “to the point where you could be the most paranoid people in the world.”
According to Dhani, when it finally came time for him to leave the band, George was remarkably “nonchalant” about it. “Even if you look at the diary entry we put in the book, it’s like, ‘Got up, left the Beatles, went and had lunch’—it’s so nonchalant, but you know that he was kind of secretly brewing this ridiculous triple vinyl record in his head and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way.
“Just like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to leave the Beatles now, because I’m not going to be able to do what I need to do,'” Dhani concluded. We might see the moment that George realizes this. Either way, we’re wildly curious about what we’ll see in Get Back. Especially since Dhani gave it his seal of approval.
The three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back premieres on Disney+ on Nov. 25, 26, and 27.
