George Harrison’s Wife Olivia Says It Was Fascinating Entering His World
George Harrison‘s wife, Olivia, said it was fascinating entering his world. However, she had a lot of work to do, softening George’s rougher edges. Without her, George would have had no voice or body.
Eric Clapton warned George Harrison’s wife, Olivia, about dating him
George’s first marriage to Pattie Boyd ended messily. She ran off to be with George’s friend, Eric Clapton. Afterward, George “went on a bit of a bender.”
That is until he met Olivia in 1974. In 1972, Olivia started working at A&M Records, which was distributing George’s new label, Dark Horse Records. Olivia impressed George, so he arranged for her to work at his record label. They met in person shortly after and quickly started a relationship.
Ironically, Clapton warned her about dating George. When Olivia met George, he was still in the process of splitting with Boyd. Olivia told Yahoo Entertainment that George was “having a bit of a little bit too much fun,” referring to George’s “bender.”
Olivia admitted she “definitely had some trepidations” about getting romantically involved with a Beatle. Clapton warned her about what type of person George was at the time.
“I thought, ‘Hang on, hang on. Do I really want to get into this?’ Eric said, ‘If you’re going to be with George, you better pull your socks up.’ Which meant, get ready for the ride. I don’t think he meant it in a negative way. He just meant that there’s a lot goes on in this world, you know? And he was right about that. … But George was just a real person.”
Olivia wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. So, she proceeded with caution with George.
George’s wife, Olivia, said it was fascinating entering his world
Despite her trepidation with dating a Beatle, especially one she said had the “mark of the beast,” Olivia was fascinated by entering George’s world.
In her new poetry book, Came the Lightening, there’s a poem called “My Arrival.” Olivia wrote it about adapting to George’s lifestyle.
She told AARP, “People probably thought I wouldn’t be there that long. You can understand that. I didn’t have any history with anyone, so I had no grudges. I write about coming into his house and putting flowers on his mantel and people saying, ‘No, no, no. He doesn’t like flowers there.’ Being an outsider, it was fascinating.”
Olivia had the hardest job in the world
Once George and his wife started their life together, there was no looking back. They were partners forever.
In Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Olivia said, “We just seemed like partners from the very beginning… We had our differences. I might have done a different technique than he did, but we both had the same goal, and I think that was really the key to everything in our lives.”
However, keeping up with George was hard work.
“Olivia had the hardest job in the world, because she loved George more than all of us, and she really took care of him and cleared the path in front of him, behind him, and inherited that crazy life, you know,” Tom Petty told Rolling Stone.
George’s wife endured hate mail, death threats, and a home invasion, but nothing could stop her from being with George.
