Paul McCartney Shares What He Thinks About When Looking at Photos of George Harrison and John Lennon
Paul McCartney often reminisces about George Harrison and John Lennon. While Ringo Starr is also like a brother to him, Harrison and Lennon grew up with McCartney, and the trio developed plenty of fantastic memories. While Harrison and Lennon are no longer here, McCartney still has many ways to remember his former bandmates and friends.
Paul McCartney shares the memories that come to him when thinking about John Lennon and George Harrison
Paul McCartney recently opened an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery that featured pictures he discovered of The Beatles during the height of Beatlemania in 1964. He also recently released a book featuring these photos called 1964: Eyes of the Storm. In a recent interview about the book with BBC Radio 4’s Today, McCartney shared his thoughts when he sees photos of Lennon and Harrison.
“It’s great because, you know, whenever you lose someone, I think the natural thing is, ‘Well, we’ve got beautiful memories’, and you hold fast to those memories of the good times, I don’t tend to dwell on the fact that you’ve lost someone,” McCartney said. “After a while – it will maybe take a year or two – but then you can look back, and so yeah, I’m looking at George there, and it makes me think, ‘God, I met him on the school bus, and he’s my little mate, my little brother’, you know? Similarly, with John. You just remember where you met them, things you did.”
“We went hitchhiking together, me and George went down to Wales once, and then another time we went down to Exmouth, we just hitchhiked, so we were really close, you know?” he continued. “Then when it came to The Beatles, and you’d have this sort of overwhelming stuff happening to you, you knew each other so well that you could lean on each other, so yeah, that’s what I see in these pictures. But yeah, it is sad, because I’d prefer them to be here.”
McCartney has a tree in his front yard that reminds him of Harrison
George Harrison was an exceptional gardener; it was his primary hobby outside of music. The musician would often say that if he weren’t doing music, then he would have been a gardener. His passion for gardening extended to his friends, as George Harrison once gifted Paul McCartney with a tree.
In an interview with NPR, the “Hey Jude” singer said he planted the tree in his front yard and says hello to it every morning. He imagines he’s greeting George and it keeps his spirit alive.
“George was very into horticulture, a really good gardener. So he gave me a tree as a present,” McCartney explained. “It’s a big fir tree, and it’s by my gate. As I was leaving my house this morning, I get out of the car, close the gate and look up at the tree and say, ‘Hi, George.’ There he is, growing strongly. And you know, that takes me back to the time when I hitchhiked with him! They’re an ever-present presence, if that’s a way to say.”
