George Harrison’s Wife Said He Enjoyed Making a Good Moment Better
George Harrison‘s wife, Olivia, said her husband enjoyed making a good moment better. The former Beatle’s friends would’ve agreed.
George Harrison had ‘no voice and almost no body’ before meeting his wife, Olivia
In 1974, George met his wife during a terrible time. He was grieving the loss of his first marriage to Pattie Boyd.
“Well, I wasn’t ready to join Alcoholics Anonymous or anything – I don’t think I was that far gone – but I could put back a bottle of brandy occasionally, plus all the other naughty things that fly around,” George told Rolling Stone in 1979.
“I just went on a binge, went on the road . . . all that sort of thing, until it got to the point where I had no voice and almost no body at times. Then I met Olivia and it all worked out fine. There’s a song on the new album, ‘Dark Sweet Lady’: ‘You came and helped me through/ When I’d let go/ You came from out the blue/ Never have known what I’d done without you.’ That sums it up.”
Once George met Olivia, he realized she was his match. They’d had similar childhoods and were both well on their way in their own spiritual journeys.
In Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Olivia said, “When I first met him, he said, ‘I don’t want you to think you’ve discovered something about me I don’t know. I’m not claiming to be this or that or anything. People think they found you out, when I’m not hiding anything.’
“I thought he was really somebody who was saying something that I connected with. He was really a very captivating person… I liked the music, I liked what he was doing. We just seemed like partners from the very beginning.”
George and Olivia married in 1978, shortly after having their only son, Dhani. Then, the couple embarked on a 30-year marriage. They had their ups and downs, but they were partners.
George enjoyed making good moments better
Olivia knew her favorite memories of her long marriage with the former Beatle. In her preface for Harrison, she wrote that he knew how to improve a good moment.
“The silence of George’s absence in our lives is deafening,” she wrote. “Although he often renounced his role as an entertainer, my life with him was never boring. There were many comedies, and a few tragedies, but, most of all, deep love for all living things.
“Our son, Dhani, and I, like George’s friends, were spoiled by his rich and loving presence: from that morning wake-up call, which could have been (depending on our location and mood) a morning raga, a Vedic chant, a Mozart concerto, Cab Calloway’s ‘Bugle Call Rag,’ or Hoagy’s earliest instrumental version of ‘Stardust,’ to the day’s final tune, maybe whistled on his way to bed and which I would wake up in the morning singing.
“He loved planting the seed of a song and would sometimes whistle a tune I disliked just to see if he could get it rolling around in my head. After I would complain about it, he’d say, ‘OK, here’s one to replace it,’ and whistle another…
“Besides the company, conversation and wisdom of my beloved friend, I already long for the live background music to our lives. If I began singing a song–any song–he would accompany and encourage me.
“If I played three chords on the uke (compulsory instrument in our home), he would be my band. George was so generous and ‘grateful to anyone that is happy or free.’ A good moment to him was always worth making better.”
Tom Petty said George knew how to ‘fill a room’
As Olivia said, she wasn’t the only person on the receiving end of George’s charm.
In Tom Petty’s speech inducting George into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he said George really knew how to fill a room. He was a very “upbeat person” who had a “keen sense of humor” and spirit. George was never “preachy” and “led by example.”
Petty also told Rolling Stone, “I’ll tell you, nobody I’ve encountered ever lived his life more every day than George did,” Petty continued. “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.”
George had a lasting effect on everyone in his life.
