George Harrison's Diary Entry Reveals Details About What He Did The Day He Left The Beatles
The Beatles dominated the rock and roll scene across the globe for decades, and its members continued to rise as icons even after they walked their separate ways. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney stood out as solo artists, Ringo Starr and George Harrison kept a low profile. Following the end of the band, Harrison mentioned the circumstances in which he left the band in his diary. His entry from 10 January 1969 was curated on Diaries of Note.
"Got up went to Twickenham rehearsed until lunchtime — left the Beatles — went home and in the Evening did King of Fuh at Trident Studio — had chips later at Klaus and Christines went home," Harrison wrote in his short diary entry back then. The guitarist was rehearsing with the band when the tension between them was at an all-time high and he had clashed with McCartney. Their final album together was titled "Let It Be" and it was released in May 1970.
According to The Collector, the disbandment of The Beatles marked the end of an era as the four members went their separate ways to pursue their music and individual passions. Many point towards the fact that the band started to crack apart with Lennon's abrupt decision to quit. Along with that, there were internal power struggles and creative differences between the band members that caused them to disband. In 1966, The Beatles finally decided to stop performing live. Some credit the end of Lennon-McCartney's songwriting partnership as the turning point in the band's future together.
As for Harrison, he continued to have a successful solo career after parting ways with The Beatles. He went on to release 12 solo studio albums and two as part of The Traveling Wilburys supergroup alongside Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. In 1966, he married Patti Boyd but they ended up divorcing in 1977.
In the mid-1960s, when he was still a part of The Beatles, Harrison met Sivananda Yoga founder Swami Vishnu Devanada. He even married his first wife Boyd during a pilgrimage to India. Harrison studied sitar with Pandit Ravi Shankar and along with the band, he visited Rishikesh, as per the outlet. However, tragedy befell on Harrison when he was attacked by an intruder in his home in 1999. A schizophrenic man stabbed Harrison more than 40 times with a kitchen knife and punctured his lungs before his wife Arias tried to stop the intruder by hitting him with a lamp and fireplace poker.
Harrison had maintained a relatively low profile by then and he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997. He passed away at Heather Road in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on November 29, 2001.
"Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another," Harrison stated in his final message to the world, per the outlet. He was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetary and his ashes were scattered in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers near Varanasi, India according to Hindu tradition.
