George Harrison Scolded Eric Clapton so Harshly That He Became Afraid to Let His ‘Guard Down’ Around Him
George Harrison and Eric Clapton were friends, but their relationship saw its fair share of problems. They were able to work through even their biggest problems, but some of their disagreements left marks. Clapton recalled being the target of so much of Harrison’s anger that it made him less comfortable around the former Beatle.
George Harrison scolded Eric Clapton
After Clapton recorded a guitar solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Harrison gave him an early version of The White Album. Clapton took it upon himself to show the record to others. When Harrison found out, he was furious.
“When I left the following month to go to America on Cream’s farewell tour, I took these [acetates] with me,” he wrote in Clapton: The Autobiography. “While I was in LA, I had been playing some of the songs on the album to various friends when I got a phone call from George. Word had got back to him that I was playing the album around town, and he was furious and gave me a huge bollocking.”
Clapton said that while he grew to understand why Harrison wasn’t happy, his anger hurt. He got over it, but he said he’d seen a side to Harrison that made it more difficult for him to let his guard down.
“I remember being incredibly hurt because I thought I’d been doing a grand job of promoting their music to really discriminating people,” he said. “It brought me down to earth with a bang, and it was a good lesson to learn about boundaries, and not making assumptions, but it stung like hell. For a little while, I steered clear of him, but in time we became friends again, although after that, I was always a little wary of letting my guard down around him.”
The Beatle reportedly had a temper
In contrast to his public image, Harrison reportedly had quite a temper in his private life. His first wife, Pattie Boyd, said he could be very cold and sharp with her. John Lennon’s girlfriend, May Pang, recalled a time when Harrison got so angry that he frightened his former bandmate. Boyd said Harrison once snapped at a flight attendant for even talking to him.
“He wanted to reach the spiritual place to which he aspired, but the pleasures of the flesh were too tempting,” Boyd wrote in the book Wonderful Tonight. “[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 and Eric Clapton were able to work past their issues
Another major bump in Harrison and Clapton’s relationship came when Clapton pursued Boyd romantically. She married him after her divorce from Harrison. Remarkably, however, Harrison remained friends with the couple.
“That Christmas we had turkey, and as we were sitting down to it at Hurtwood Edge, George burst in, uninvited,” she wrote. “He was horrified to see me eating meat and berated me — but then we laughed and he had some Christmas pudding with us, and some wine, and it wasn’t awkward at all. I couldn’t believe how friendly he and Eric were toward each other.”
