Olivia Harrison

Hi, my name is Olivia Harrison, and I feel sillier being Conan O'Brien's friend. Yes, I make people silly. Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. We're changing things up a little bit here. Normally, this would be a fan episode. I would talk to someone from anywhere in the world who listens to the podcast, and we'd get into it, and it would get weird very quickly. Today's a little different. I'm talking to someone who I know. I've met this woman several times over the years. She's absolutely lovely. And. And I am thrilled that she agreed to sit down and talk to me, give an interview about a book that she's come out with. And so this is great. So let's get into it. My guest today is an author and film producer who has curated the personal photographs and film stills of her late husband, George Harrison, into a new book titled The Third Eye Early Photographs. It's a gorgeous book. I'm very happy that she's here. She could talk to us about it today. Olivia Harrison, welcome. I came here to be silly. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure. Well, it's kind of good. Yeah. There's a lot of squares out there. Yes. It's true. It is true. It's really hard talking to squares. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. Every time I look in the mirror, I'm confronted. Olivia, I've had the pleasure of knowing you somewhat for quite a while now. We've been at a bunch of dinner parties together. I love talking to you. You're really funny. We always have a great hang. And so I'm thrilled that you're here. And I love your book. This is a beautiful book. Thank you. Thank you so much. It means a lot to me to have you here. And I thought we should just start with, before we get into the photographs in this absolutely stunning book, I just wanted to talk a little bit about you and your background because there were things that I didn't know. I didn't realize that you grew up in Los Angeles in really a Spanish-speaking environment, Mexican-Spanish-speaking environment. That's correct, yes? True. Yeah. Yeah. And so you grew up here and you don't meet George until, I think you've met in maybe 1972, but you don't marry until 1974. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, my grandparents came here from Mexico. My parents were born here. I lived over, they lived over near Graham Avenue. And when the horse and carts, they were going to visit their family in horse and carts. Wow. In Los Angeles. Yeah. And then one day, my father went off to the war. He came back. I'm actually doing a little film about this immigrant family. And anyway, we moved to- He went off. This is World War II? World War II. Yep. He was in Hell on Wheels, Tank Destroyer. Wow. Never really talked about it too much, you know? That generation didn't. They'll go off to war. They came back. There was no talking about it. There was no idea of PTSD or anything. People just, I did that. It's over now. We don't talk about it. You know, we were in a park. I'll divert. I divert a lot of it here. That's okay. I like diversions. Yeah. So we were in a park one time and my dad was there. We took him. He was in his 80s. And, um. There was another older gent sitting at another picnic bench. We were just having a picnic. And they were looking at each other. And finally they walked over to each other. And they started talking. And they were both in the war at the same time. Mm-hmm. In Germany. The same time. And these two little old guys said, Who's your commanding officer? And I think maybe it was Patton. Mm-hmm. Whoever. It was the same commanding officer. These two guys stood up and saluted one another. Oh. And, you know. Nobody's asking them about what they've been through in their lives. What they've seen in their lives. But they knew. Anyway, that was my dad. It's like an unspoken bond. Uh-huh. If you were in that with someone. And then he took us. We went. We moved to a town called Hawthorne. Uh-huh. Wait. That's where the Beach Boys are from. That's. Yeah. They were sort of my girlfriend Melody was going out with Dennis. Really? Oh. And, and, and so we would go to their house over on. Like we lived on 123rd place. Mm-hmm. And they were like on 118th. Mm-hmm. On the other side of. And so they had a little set up there with the band set up. And. Is this when they were the Beach Boys? So we were in their little basement. Surfer stomping. Uh-huh. And they were playing surfing. And somebody said, this song is going to be on the radio. It's like, nah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It's going to be on the radio. And so, you know, that was Hawthorne High School. Yeah. And where I once took George just to show him. And this is where I went to high school because we lived across the street. And we're driving by and this is the car park. What, you had a car? Like, even if you had a car in England, you couldn't drive it. It's like, we never had a car. And anyway, we talked about. I think he's bitter about you having a car. No, no, no. He was bitter about, about, you know, University of Please Yourself California. Yes, yes. Basically. What's a sock hop? Well, it's when you have a dance in the gym and you can't wear your shoes. Because you might scratch the floor. You know, they've been singing all these lyrics. Sock hop ball. Yeah. You know, all that jazz. That's so funny because, and he was a Beach Boys fan. He was very much. He had a lot of respect for Brian. Yeah. When you introduce George to your family, they call him Jorge? He called himself Jorge. Oh, he called himself Jorge. He was like, I'm Jorge? Yeah. Because he wanted, till the end of his life, that was his, he used to call himself Jorge. Jorge Arias. Arias is my surname. My maiden name. Because he thought it was much cooler, much cooler than George. He goes, if George is a stupid name for a kid, sorry. Sorry, all Georges out there. I happen to like it. Geo, it's of the earth. Yes. That's the root of that. Yeah. So, anyway, you know, he did, because King George, of course, everybody was named George. Yeah, sure. A popular name. But he, you know, he said, my mother. My mother. My mom and dad, they were pals, were a lot like his family. And our moms were named Louise. Yeah, that's right. They listened to the same music. We used to spend the night over there all the time in Hawthorne in the little room. It was fun. It was great. So, this is fascinating to me that George famously was so much, was so open to different kinds of music. Did he get into Mexican music? Oh, gosh, yeah. In fact, I did, you know, we used to watch a lot of Mexican movies. I cut out all the musical numbers, put them on a VHS, you know, way back. And then he just, he loved these. Ah, that's a good chord change. That's a good, ah, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Did he give it up and join a mariachi band for a few years? He might have. I could probably show you a picture of George and I dressed as mariachis. The big hats. Yeah, that's right. I just love how open he was to just everything. Just new experiences, new cultures, new. He loved it. I mean, he loved it. I mean, he and my dad were really pals. They were very irreverent. And he recorded your dad. Your dad was musical. That's right, you knew that. Yeah, I know that he made a recording with your dad, brought him into the studio and helped produce. That's so cool. You know, and my dad, they used to record onto vinyl. Somebody, one of their friends had a pressing or cutting machine. So that was like 1938, my mom said. And we had to sit there really quiet all Sunday. I said, really? No kidding. So did I. And so at one point, he said, I said, why don't you record my dad? You know, he's getting old. So they went into the studio and George woke me up about four in the morning, literally tears in his eyes. He said, you have to listen to this. And, you know, of course, my dad went to bed early and he and a neighbor, Joe Brown, who was also a big pop star, Beatles opened for Joe Brown. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, and they'd put a couple of strings on there. And some little piano. And it was just lovely. And made my dad a CD of his songs. Did your dad appreciate that George Harrison is producing him? Or did he just think, oh, that's Jorge, you know, he did a pretty good job. If I could only get George Harrison. Yeah, if I could only get George Harrison instead of this Jorge idiot. They just never made a, my dad never made a, like a big deal about it. Cool. Yeah. I'm curious about one thing, which is you meet George, you guys fall in love, you get married, and then suddenly. You're into, you're in that world and you made a very conscious choice to not put yourself forward because once you marry a Beatle, it's a whole thing. And so you had to negotiate that, which I imagine is not easy. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, funnily enough, I met George at A&M records and, but the first time we ever went anywhere together was here on Larchmont Boulevard. Oh, really? There's a hall here. somewhere, and I was going to listen to a talk on meditation. And I just met him about a week before, and he was like, can I come with you? I was like, oh, no. Yeah, of course. And I called my sister, who was going and said, listen, I'm coming to this thing. It was a film we were going to watch. I'm coming to this thing. Save two seats, and I'm not coming in until the lights go off, and I'm going to leave just before it's over. Because I had a lot of friends there, and I just, you know. But I felt for him, because he said, can I go with you? And I thought, sure, come on. What, you haven't got anything else to do? Apparently, no, he didn't. Apparently not. I suspect he wanted to be with you, though. So you are suddenly in that world, and, you know, I've had the great pleasure. Your son, Danny, invited me over to Friar Park, Crackerbox Palace, for the full tour. And I was over the moon. I was electrified. I'm a big guitar geek. He let me hold all the guitars. And I'm like, oh, my God, it's the Gretsch Duo Jet. Oh, it's the Rickenbacker 12-string. It's the Rosewood Telecaster. I'm just, oh, my God. I was. A Tele's nice, isn't it? It's heavy. It's really heavy. That Rosewood Telecaster's really heavy. Yeah. They only made, you know, they made one for Jimi Hendrix and one for George. Yeah. And then he gave that one to Delaney Bramlett. Yeah. And did you guys get it back? It came back, yes. Good. Okay. Because I don't like it. George did either. It's fine. It's got to stay in your family. Tell him just, you know, you should have said at the time, stop giving stuff away. Give it to Conan. Who's Conan? You'll see. He gave his Oscar away to Michael Palin. And he gave his Oscar away? And he scratched Michael's name on it because he loved Michael Palin. Of course, yeah. And so he just said, here, why don't you have it? You really deserve this. And he scratched his name at it. And Michael took it home. And after George died, he gave it back, which was very sweet. He also gave away his beetle boots to Slim Jim Phantom, or the Stray Cats. Sure, Stray Cats, yeah. And the big fuzzy coat on the rooftop of Let It Be to a nanny who was cold. Oh. Like, you can borrow the jacket. I know that. I know that. I'm getting the impression that what we needed to do was somehow get over there and hang around George when he's giving stuff away. Just pretend you're gardening. Yeah. I don't remember hiring you. I sure am cold, and boy, don't I have a guitar. Yeah. Did you ever see George give things away, and you're like, don't give that away? Yes, yes. Yes, I'll be a. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you like Olivia's tiara? Have it. Yeah. It's mine. So I just got this window into what an insanely incredible life you and Danny and George had. Danny told me one story. We're in the kitchen, and in the kitchen, you can look out those windows. I'm explaining to you what you can see, and see all of just Friar Park. It's beautiful. You can step right through the doors, and you can see, oh, there's where they shot the cover for All Things Must Pass. I mean, I'm just. Foam is coming out my ears, and not in a good way. And settle down, Shona. Why would it be in a good way? I mean, if I'm having to put out a fire. Yeah. During the fires, I could. Or land a plane. Yeah. So, and Danny said, yeah, he said he remembered during the traveling Wilbury days, he was headed off to school, and all the traveling Wilburys are sitting around a table. I think it was the second album. And they're all sitting around a table, and they're having breakfast, and Danny's headed off to school. And he said, they're all sitting there, and he said that Bob Dylan had like a sweatshirt on with a hood, like a hoodie, and the hood was up, and he was eating cereal out of a bowl. And Danny's like, got his school uniform on to go off and learn, you know, whatever, calculus. And he's headed out with his book bag. And they start. George says, well, you know, where are you going? He said, I'm going to school, Dad. And he said, don't go to school. I never really went to school, and I turned out all right. And then he said, Bob Dylan was like, yeah, don't go to school, Dad. And it was this bizarro world. This bizarro world where a bunch of grownups are telling a kid who's trying to learn, a bunch of grownups are telling a kid who's trying to learn. A bunch of rock stars. And, you know, Tom Petty's like, yeah, man, you don't need school. One of them dressed like the Unabomber. Yeah, exactly. Unabomber eating Raisin Bran. But I just thought, what a funny household to be in. I used to say, thanks a lot, guys. Thanks a lot, yeah. Danny was having a piano lesson early on because I thought, just don't put the guitar at him. George never showed him guitar or asked him if he wanted to play or anything. He had this little piano thing. Eric Clapton was coming over to play. And he walks in, he goes, oh, man, Danny, I feel sorry for you. I hated my piano teacher. I'm like, excuse me. He's not you. He's not going to be you in life. Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot. Yeah, yeah. He just runs up the stairs. Danny looks at him. Didn't last long, much longer after that. Yeah, yeah. The little piano thing. Man. It's just so funny. Like, yeah, everything is backwards. What are you practicing piano for? Hey, and don't go to school. I know when Danny finished his O-levels, he was saying, okay, well, that's enough now. And he goes, no, Dad, I have to do my A-levels. And then he does his A-levels. He goes, okay, well, good, that's enough now. And he goes, no, Dad, I got to go to university. It was like, oh, what's the point of having a boy if he's always in school? You know, that Python line, rather have a box of fish than a son like that. Well, of course, George, fantastic sense of humor. Oh, you know, and it's, I mean, we're going to get to it, but it's all throughout the book, all throughout the photographs, his sense of humor and his playfulness. And that was a hallmark of the Beatles is they were very funny. But George's sense of humor was very specific, really funny and subversive. And because he was the quiet one, you expected it less, which made it all the more surprising and wonderful. And I'm sure that sense of humor was around the house all the time. Oh, all the time. I mean, he used to jukebox to get Danny out of bed. He used to play Bugle Call Rag by Cab Calloway. I don't know if you've ever heard it, but it's pretty loud. And it was on the jukebox that's in that big hallway. I've seen that jukebox, yeah. But he was waiting for someone to give it to me. And Olivia, if you can get it out of here, yeah. And he was, you know, pretty irreverent. And, you know, there were occasions when my hand would just go over his mouth. You would cover his mouth? Yeah, we'd be like out somewhere and he'd go back. I know what you're going to say. I just know what you're going to say. You know, he wasn't mean. Right. He was brutal in, you know, in a different way. Oh, I know. Because he didn't like, you know what. I'm familiar with this craft. Yeah, you know. I'm not mean, but yeah, you can be brutal in a funny way. Yeah, you know, he didn't like jive, you know. He didn't like BS. He just liked, and there were a lot of things he didn't want to, you know, sometimes we'd be having a conversation, a gang of us or something. He'd come in the room. He goes, oh, you're not still talking about that, are you? I'd be like, oh, okay. Yeah. Or I do not wish to know that. Yeah. That was another big one. Because there were things he didn't want in his head. It was negative? No, it's like, okay, you've had enough input by the time you're 22 or four. Can you imagine that? Being, you know, George Saunders writes about it in his piece here. Yeah, beautiful piece. Beautiful. You know, like, who else? Very few people had that experience of being in the center of that kind of attention. It was those kind of. Yeah. And he was by far the youngest. I mean, in those early. Those early, you know, records. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when they're rising to fame, he's like 19. He's, you know, he's, he's a, he's a, he's a kid. Like, you know, he always said, yes. I think when they were like in there, you know, he was saying, yes, I'm still eight months younger than Paul. Yeah. He was the young one. Yeah. He never could. And Paul never let him forget it. Apparently. You're the kid. It was very sweet. They really were tight. The, you know, I want to show some of these photos and, and through the, you know, the photos, I think we're going to get to other stories, but they really are remarkable documents. First of all, George gets this, uh, all the Beatles get these Pentax cameras, I think in around 1963. Yeah. And in so many photos of the Beatles, you see them with their cameras taking pictures. Um, George has a great eye. He really does have a great eye. And, um, what I love about a lot of these photos is yes, we're going to see some photos of the other Beatles. But he took so many photos. He took so many photos of just what he was experiencing. People who were just there in the eye of that hurricane. Some of them who don't even know who the Beatles are, if they're in India or they're in some foreign country. It's really fascinating. Let's take a look. I think we can start it off. This is a picture that George took of you, which I love this photo. Should we mention really quickly too, that you can go to our YouTube page and see all these photos on the YouTube episode of this. Yeah. I mean, some people don't love just hearing a photo described. Um, it's my favorite way to experience a photo is to have it talked about on a podcast, but not seeing it. There's a lot of pressure. your job to do justice to these yes exactly with words yeah no go on the youtube page and and and check out these photos because they really are extraordinary this is a gorgeous photo thank you was not my idea to put that in there it was a george a photo that george took but okay what the heck well you it's a beautiful photo yeah yeah it's it's really gorgeous we were very proud of that mandala because we bought that woven piece which was just on a market stall in india somewhere but we brought it home all the way home and we had a mosaic made out of it so it was and it's still hanging there and so for people who are driving just give it a quick description if you can i want you to do it you want me to do it yeah beautiful picture of you olivia and then above you is something was purchased in india yeah just you know in a craft fair yeah just a woven mandala you it's a big uh woven piece and it was actually pink and a mandala mandala is what is a mandala it's a tool each pattern represents something different beautiful uh yeah you see the ones with man with the triangle and the man sitting in lotus position they're they're vedic as opposed to buddhist or or hindu i think they're sort of within those belief yeah it's a it is a complex geometric design that translates from sanskrit as circle and represents the universe wholeness and the spiritual journey to enlightenment and blake didn't read that i just think it's a i just think it's a beautiful photograph it is that's what i wanted to say i didn't want to screw it up let's move on let's see what else now this fascinates me um very few people know about this i mean beatles fans beatles freaks like me know about it but uh most the beatles had never been to the united states when they came to do the sullivan show in february of 1964 except one george harrison had a sister who was living in benton benton illinois benton illinois and he went and visited her like six months before beetle mania hits the united states and he walked around now beetle mania is huge in europe it's spread to it started in england it's spread it's a big deal and you see he's got like his beetle suit on but no one knows what a beetle is in the united states so he goes to uh bentonville illinois hangs out with his sister gets up on stage with like a local band and plays with them and they say hey he's pretty good um he has a stopover in new york where he walks around and there are all these amazing photographs that you know george had people take with his camera of him and no one knows who he is he's just some kid with a funny haircut in a beetle suit but people are just like who's that and whatever they're ignoring him this is a gorgeous photo though because it's actually yeah it's a screen grab a screen grab his it's a screen grab from we we also did screen grabs from his eight mil footage and he was with his brother and they went to this empire state building and this is from a from a film shoot yeah yeah but george did have a camera whether it be a dv camera video camera vhs sony umatic you know he had every iteration recording everything all the time that's and in the in the scorsese the beautiful scorsese documentary there's so much amazing footage and it was because george was shooting things all the time he had so much he was shooting a documentary about himself unknowingly well yeah i don't want you know sometimes he'd set the camera up just walk through a shot like that and he goes this is going to be a documentary about somebody who's not in it because it's going to be the first one about someone who's not actually in it yeah i said well i'll film you he goes no that's okay and then you know didn't have faith in my skills but anyway he just set up a tripod and go sit in the limb of a tree yeah and i want to show this one because george famously loved cars he really appreciated cars so the first thing he does when he starts making some money is he starts getting these cars that he could never have and this is maybe one of the reasons he was so bitter about you having you know a car when you're so young as he couldn't have that but then he had money and um you can see he just there's so many beautiful photographs this is an e-type jaguar it's absolutely stunning and i think this must be maybe 1964 um maybe 65 but it's it's you can tell in these photographs how much he loved cars he really and how proud he was to be able to own one of these cars and he he knew a lot about cars too you know i did gordon murray who designed the mclaren f1 car for senna by the way as well as um you know road car they were they were best friends so they there was a lot of fun and i think he's a great guy and i think he's a lot of talk about you know weight to power ratio and you know yeah weight of the knobs of the cd players and things like that yeah those are conversations i've never had yes i'm more of a power ratio conversations here exactly yeah we do yeah um okay this is now george uh may have invented the selfie long before the selfie existed because he takes uh first of all he discovers the fisheye lens which he loved he loved a fisheye lens and they taught you about it in the book he has a quote that he likes how it it uh distorts the world but actually shows it as it probably is as it feels i love photographs because you you can take you could show how it feels as opposed to how it is yeah and and distorting the reality it feels like liam gallagher was i was born from this photo yes no no i was going to say i looked at this photo and i said he's auditioning for oasis uh yeah 30 years before oasis that thing on the side looks like a sideways keyboard or something yeah it's very but he there's a lot of selfies in here and the the the cover's a selfie uh george shooting into a mirror he walked you know when he was a kid he said oh i used to roam around the parks in liverpool and i used to build forts out in the fields with bracken and i said who would you who would you go as he said no buddy just on my own yeah it's just me yeah and he you can see that with the camera he's walking around just a mess i can't see him i can't see him i can't see him now i can put myself in the picture i've got a fisher and a red filter and this is another thing is he's this house it's a famous house um that he had it was i think it's his first place that he bought in esher yeah and uh he's you can tell he's he's around his house he's very proud of his house and he's positioning the camera this is behind some window slats and then he's in the background but that's pretty cool actually it's really cool that was the third eye thing i love this this makes me happy this photo oh my god the beatles before they go to need to america the last thing they do is they play in uh paris and um i believe this is in paris and george just was rather than yes there's a lot of photos of oh there's john there's paul but there are great photos of him just observing people and this is um you know some guy he's a worker he's on the street yeah they're on the eiffel tower they're on the eiffel tower they're on the eiffel tower they're at the base of the eiffel tower their work is probably maintenance man yeah but you know i think what it reflects is george was joyful he was laughing if george was scornful or making fun of him he wouldn't be smiling like that yeah yeah there's this sort of mirrored but also that guy doesn't know who the beatles are may not care and that's the i think that would probably really appeal to george that this is a real human being and this is a real human interaction it's not just fans going oh my god it looked like something happened because the guy in the back is laughing he's laughing too yeah uh i love this photo it's something i've noticed sometimes in a lot of john photos is people think oh they're just euphoric the whole time it was a lot of pressure a lot of pressure and anxiety to being a beetle at this time and there's a lot uh of responsibility and there's a bunch of photos where the other guys because it's george taking the photos they're not trying to smile and and put on a happy face you can see that they're maybe a little bit they're anxious they're tired um and you know they've they've they're in the midst of conquering the world and that's not always the easiest thing to do yeah which they did not set out to do no no they set out to just oh this is a fun job good yeah and hey we get to play the cavern club and isn't this fun and then one thing led to another but no one could have foreseen what they were headed for i also love this one again on their way to the sullivan show flying from london february 1964 and just again george can get these photographs because um he's not a pr person he's just one of the guys and so you can just see john has what looks like a spoon in his mouth he's chewing it and probably thinking over how is this going to go are we going to bomb in america which was a possibility that was a distinct possibility they always said they weren't going to go unless they had a number one record yeah then they would go yeah that's my condition many times i never go anywhere because the english the english musicians see they never made it over there yeah no no i thought we're not going you know there are interviews didn't make it no you know if cliff richards didn't make it there are many interviews with them in the fall of 63 where people were saying hey late fall you know in britain you're going over to america no british act has ever made it there and they they didn't know it was going to happen they were pleasantly well you know when i first went to england i thought like some of the pop stars there you know they're very sweet and stuff we had elvis and little richard and chuck And Buddy Holly, come on, you know, so, you know, Cliff was like, summer holiday. I love him. He's great. He's still around. He's a legend. He's, you know. But you just put him down. I did because, look. No, but it's true. We had the coasters. Yes. We had music that was just beyond, you know, that was, you know, you look, well, we look, I look back at it and just think this was, everything was new. Everything was, and they brought it back to America. They brought our music back to America and showed us the value, especially of black music. Yeah. And that's for real. But I think that was, you know, people now tend to look at history and think, oh, it was all inevitable, but it wasn't. At the time, it was a very unsure thing. These guys going over there, playing this music. They're from Liverpool. People. In England, people are looking down on Liverpool. It's a port city. It's up north. What is this? Their hair. Okay, it's working, but maybe it's a fad in Europe and they're going to the United States to be on The Sullivan Show. Yeah. The odds on bet would be this is not going to work. I think this is, they're in Miami, I believe. That's right. And they're sitting around and they're just having what looks like a very, I mean, it all looks so innocent now. This is the biggest phenomenon, pop phenomenon in the world. And they're having Cokes. Cokes. Big deal of, you know, Coca-Cola, hamburger, Brian, Judy Martin, Cynthia, John, Paul, and I think Robert Freeman, the photographer. Yeah. They're just sitting around having, I like this again. George took this photo of Paul eating a banana and pulling a face, as they would say in Liverpool. And again, they're just having fun and enjoying themselves. And this is their moment to put their guard down. Because it's George with the camera. But, you know, Paul did a beautiful book last year, I think, or a year before. And they're all in the same room, completely different point of view. He's pushed that shutter button, different time, different light. And so you might think, well, the same pictures, they're all in the same plane, they're all in the same room, but they're completely different. But they're disarmed with one another. They're not at all conscious. They're so close. They've been locked in a room. They've been. They used to share rooms. So what I love about it is that this, they're not telling, they're not making faces like, yeah, bugger off or go away or stuff. You know, they're just there for each other. They're just there. They're, you know, they just seem to be, they're so tight. Yeah. Yeah. I love these weird moments. They are in a car and driving through it. Maybe this is Australia. This is Australia. Is it Australia? And they're in an open 60s, you know, Lincoln car. And they're driving. They're driving along. But again, how weird to be those guys in that moment. And there's no crowds around at all. It's just them in the middle. Seemingly, they're just driving through the outback in their suits going to the next thing. And what a weird moment. Oh, I love this picture. How chic. Yeah, it's a great photo. Don't they just look. Paul with his outspread fingers in the background. And yeah, yeah, exactly. Almost pulling the Vulcan. Yes, he's doing. He's about to give the Vulcan. The mind. Live long and prosper. Yeah. It looks like an editorial like GQ shot. It is. And look at there. So really chic. I know. Look at John. He looks like getting ready to do something. Yeah. It's the coolest time for fashion. Now, this is George selfie fisheye lens. And of course, he's at the Taj Mahal. And his life's changing because he's being introduced to the culture, the music, the spirit of India. And of course, that's going to change him. It's going to change the Beatles. It's going to change people's idea of what pop music can be. And all because George is curious and open and wants to explore. You know, when I went to work for the record label, George's, which Danny's running now, Dark Horse has amazing artists and catalogs. Um, I knew that job was coming up and I was leaving town. I just thought I'm getting out of LA had enough here. Yeah. And I saw all these, I never said until this before, all these like really cool girls going to interview for that job. And I thought, which job specifically to work with George, not doing it, not going over there, not putting myself into that thing. And then I got a call from his manager after a few days saying, could you come over and talk to me? And I said, yeah, sure. And he said, we'd like you to come and work for Dark Horse. I remember met this guy before. Yeah. And, uh, and I'm sure it was because, and I thought, isn't that funny? Isn't that funny? And, and, uh, I guess because I was the yoga girl on, on the lot and a meditator and a vegetarian, I'm sure somebody found that out. Speaking of India, because George was then really getting into, especially in the 73. Right. He'd been to India, excuse me, a couple of times by then, of course, he'd already done that in sixties with Maharishi, but he was really pursuing this, this journey. And so we had that. And that was, uh, what got us through the whole deal. One of the things I'm curious about overall is a lot of these photographs are like 63 to 69 in this book. And I'm a little curious, you see the same George cause you don't meet him until 1974. When you see these photographs of him a bunch of years before you even met him in this different life, do you, do you see the same George or did you see that he had changed? That's interesting. Um, I like seeing these ones before I met him. It just allows me to be a little clearer about, you know, I'm not so emotionally attached to these photographs. I love them. And I can see like, you know, the early photographs with, with the Beatles, it's like nothing really bad has happened yet. You know, when you're young in life and everything's good and you haven't lost, you know, people, close friends, tragedies, things happening. It's like there's, there's a part of life where you're young and everything is like, ah, you know, you're invincible. And that's what, so that's what I love about seeing him then, because we went through some stuff, you know, things got dark and, uh, uh, it's just the way, you know, life, life is, but that's what I love about watching them. Just like, oh, you want to protect your kids. You know, you don't want anything to ever bad happen to him. You don't want him to see anything bad and you can't do it. You know, you, you, as a parent, you, you can't protect your children. And so I look at this and I just think this is a beautiful capsule of those times. That's how I feel about when, when I look at them. What really comes through, because there's a bunch of photographs in the book of Friar Park, how much of a sanctuary that was for him, for you, for Danny. It came out a little bit, I think in the, uh, in the Scorsese documentary, but, you know, someone suggesting, maybe it was Danny suggested, hey, let's, let's go into town. Let's go into London. And he was like, it's insane out there. His experience was, why would we leave these beautiful grounds? Why don't we just stay here? Because that world is insane, which was, of course, his experience of that world. You know, he wasn't, yeah, he says, you know, Friar Park's the only place I can, I feel sane or I can breathe, whatever one of the quotes in here. And then also in that documentary, he says, you know, I feel fine when I'm in my garden, but when I go out the gates, it's like I'm on the wrong planet. Yeah. And, uh, but having said that, he did get around, you know, he was a, he was, he used to go to Australia a lot, go to the Grand Prix's. He used to, he used to get out and about. But, um, when he was a kid and he played in the parks in Liverpool, he said to me when he came to Friar Park, it looked, it felt familiar to him. And when I went to this particular park, Calderstone's Park in Liverpool, I thought, yeah, I get it. This is where he played. And they had a rock garden and they had a little pond and they had a rockery. I thought that's why it's familiar to him. But they used to close the gates at like five o'clock. The parkie would close the gates and he's, he told his dad one day, I'm going to have my own park. Yeah. And, and, and Friar Park was a mess. It was derelict. There are photos in here of them, uh, doing all the reconstruction. The, the, uh, the Friar Park was really crumbling. This is beautiful. It was, it was going to be demolished. It was going to be demolished and George buys it. And is this? '70, '71. 1970. Yeah. He buys it and then does this massive, uh, reconstruction project on it. And one of the things my mom always used to say about me was you're house proud. Meaning, uh, you know, when I first made some money, the first thing I bought, uh, when I could, like three years into my late night show, was a small house in, you know, Connecticut on this hilltop in the farm country. And it's this weird little octagonal house from the 1860s. And I, I bought this thing. And in the 33 years or something that I've had it, all I do is walk around and take pictures of it from different angles. And my mother said to me once, yeah, you're house proud, meaning I'm just so proud of my house. And so what I could connect to in this book was George walking around Friar Park and taking so many pictures from so many angles of the same house, but in slightly different light, this angle, that angle, all the care and the loving, you know, bringing trees in rebuilding the irrigation system. Fixing things that it was, um, like I looked at that and I thought, oh, I know what this is. I know what this is. Yeah. And it, it gave him somewhere to put his anchor. Yeah. energy. I mean, he was very creative too. And we used to say it was amateur hour because we didn't have, you know, architects and gardeners and landscape, you know, ultimately we did. I had people helping, but we just used to go plant things anywhere. And it's amazing now that garden is so beautiful. And I think, did you know, you know, he was a visionary and he had respect for architecture. That was probably one of the only things in school was art class, you know, and he drew columns, Corinthian columns and buttresses and arches. And he was really interested. So Friar Park really fascinated him. And there's a lot of symbology there too. The man who owned it was quite eccentric. Yeah. A real eccentric. Yeah. A real eccentric. It's Frankie. Frank Crisp. Frank Crisp. Yeah. He has a song to him, Frankie Crisp. But yeah, quite a strange, unusual man built this, what some would call a folly, you know. Yeah. There are many follies there. I mean, it's really extraordinary. He built the Blue Grottoes Capri under the gardens. Yeah. And a Matterhorn rockery. Yeah. Walk around. Danny showed us there's an area of it where there's giant fake Matterhorn mountains. And there's a story that, Walt Disney either visited, I don't know if it's, if it's apocryphal, but Walt Disney either saw it or heard about it, but that it does look like there's a part of it that looks like a Disneyland mountain skate before Disneyland. No, for sure. Walt was in Henley-on-Thames. I know that somebody was reading in the archives and they told me, by the way, he was in Henley-on-Thames. Yeah. But he did. So he was in the neighborhood. It was a boat ride, like the small world. It was a boat ride through these things. He had, he had gnomes and flamingos and stone things carved, little vignettes going through. And then he brought 20,000 tons of boulders from Yorkshire by train, then horse and cart to Henley. This is Frank Crisp. Frank Crisp and built that rockery so he could display his alpine plants because the Matterhorn had just been climbed in 1875. I am a tour guide. Wow. 1875, Matterhorn was climbed. This is my spirit animal, this guy. He had, he had the largest alpine collection in Great Britain. And so he built this, he must've been to Switzerland. He built this Matterhorn. When you go on the, on the, what do you call it? The roller coaster and the Matterhorn, you know how you walk up the side like that and you go into the caves? Exactly. The ice caves of Grindelwald are underneath the Matterhorn. And that's where you would go in if you were in Disneyland. And, you know, I, I used to bug Bob Iger. He used to run. Cause I go, I know he was there. I know Walt was there. Yeah. You know. I think you're entitled to a piece. Yes. Of Disneyland. I think we all are. I do. And I'm saying this as someone who. Yes. Yes. We'll get there in a second. We're here. We're helping her. Olivia, what I'm telling you is I will represent you and then I will get a piece. I know I haven't been to law school, but I think I'm the one to do this. I had one of the great highlights of my life is I had a, uh, encounter with George. I was a writer on Saturday night live and he dropped by one night. Yeah. And he walked into the room and we were, he'd been out with Lorne Michaels. He came back. He wanted to, I guess, come back and see what was going on. And we were all in one room. We were just blown away. We were all in one room. He sat at the piano and played a little bit. And the whole time I'm thinking, hey, because I'm such a freak back in my office, which is 30 feet down the hall. I have a 1964 Gretsch Tennessean. That's the same guitar year and make that George had on his second visit to the U.S. as a Beatle in in, you know, not the Sullivan show, but in the spring. And I could I could I could show this to George. Did you know? Why not? He lost his some he you know, he had now you tell me. Oh, and clearly now we know where it was. Yeah, he lost it. He would have said a little red haired girl just stole my guitar. He gave it to you. And I said, I'm a boy. No, I I thought about going back there. And then you know what I thought, Olivia? I thought, don't be that guy. Don't be the guy who's like, hey, mister, you know, look, look. I mean, I didn't want to I wanted to respect. His space. Lovely of you. He would have loved that because I could have given it to him. I bought him a country gent. Right. Yeah. There's a there's a country gentleman. And then there's another one. This is how nerdy I am. There's what's called the Tennessean, which is the model with one cutaway. And that's the one I have painted F holes. And I only got it because I knew that George had played one. And it was my first electric guitar. And it's a good choice. Yeah. And I was. You know, loved Gretchen's for the same reason I think George did. And and just love the look of them and that fat sound. And so and then I thought, don't do that. Don't be that guy. So I didn't do it. Don't want to make you feel bad. You did. You would have he would have sat there jamming with you. I'm afraid he would have played. He would have played like Carl Perkins. Yeah. He would have started picking. And that's the stuff I know. Oh, no, I'm I'm tell them I'm a rockabilly guy. Yeah. So much salt in the wound. And then he would have said, why don't you come with me and I'll give you some stuff. You really wanted to start a band. Remind me to send you. I have this little clip in the studio where they're playing. I don't know. He's doing one of the songs. He gets bored. He goes into this rockabilly thing. And it's just what you want to hear. I'm going to. I'm telling you, I send it to you that I have the same fascination. I mean, George was a different generation for me. But for some reason, I have the exact same fascination. And one of the things I love in the book. The top of the book. This isn't a photograph that that George took, but you include this notebook from his school days. And at the outside of the book is very serious. It's something, you know, like a German class. Yeah, it's a German class. And outside it says, you know, George Harrison, you know, third form or whatever. And the German class notes. And then you open it to the first page and it's all lyrics to Bebop Balula. It's all of these rockabilly songs. And he's writing out all the lyrics and drawing guitars. And I'm thinking I completely. Understand this man because I, you know, I should be have been listening to different music, but I always was just in in love with those and all those parts he played on Beatles records where that was George. George would put in all these different Carl Perkins riffs and, you know, just great early sun session Elvis stuff. And I just, you know, I used to teach everyone this one solo. I don't know if it was from Elvis song. I'll remember what it was sometime. But he used to say, it's not that hard. Just look sounds hard, but it's not that difficult. Yeah. You know, well, Solos. It literally my favorite solo of all time is this simple. Let it be solo. That is just so gorgeous. I love him so much. He was thoughtful. Yeah. He was very thoughtful. That's the other thing, too, as a musician, there is a thing where a lot of rock guitarists want pyrotechnics and they want to play as many notes as they can as quickly as possible. And then you listen to George's. Solo on something and you think, oh, this is a master class in how to do it. It's there's not a wasted note. It's simple. He's not showing off, but played so beautifully. Did did he appreciate how good he was? Because he's so self-effacing in interviews. He said, I think I think he did. And he was self-effacing about his playing, too, which I never understood. He was like, well, I'm not a clapton. I'm not. And I think, like, what do you you're insane unless he's just. No, he was. Really thoughtful about it. He was really close to Gary Moore and Gary could play, you know, 100 notes to George's one. But they were good notes. I think that's what it was about. He didn't like widdly widdly where they he used to go. Yeah, it's around here somewhere. You know, when people would be trying to play and. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll just keep playing a lot of notes. Some of them will be OK. He used to say that it's around here somewhere. Yeah. And then so he didn't want to do that. He just like think it out ahead of time. Yeah, I think it out. And he, you know, he wanted, you know, he'd want to just be pure on the on the notes. He wasn't going somewhere on a holiday to get there to the next note. Yeah, he knew where he was going and he knew where he was going in life. Yeah, basically metaphor there. But, you know, it's like with these, like he was searching for something and he was distorting reality. Somebody, you know, with the with the filter and the lens, someone said to me, do you like to distort? Do you like to distort reality? And I was like, OK, you know, it's like we're looking for something you're looking and he was looking for something different in the world. It's like this is sometimes this is boring. There's got to be something groovier out there. It's got to be something better. And and that's when he went on the inner journey and he did find something there. And I don't think, you know, he used to say, I don't believe it. I know it. What he knew on his own personal journey. Yeah. He said, that's not a belief. It's an experience. So, yeah, he I think he believed what he pledged. he believed in he never said that was a crap solo otherwise he wouldn't you know he would never give anybody something that he didn't think was good um my last question is how are you it's been 20 some odd years 25 years 25 years since since since george passed and um i encounter you as i said a a number of times and i i'm always just kind of smitten you're just so fun to be with and to talk to and you're so lovely and just radiant in your personality you're just a you're you're very um you bring a lot of light you bring a lot of light into situations and we've had some really good conversations and so i'm just curious how is your life it's funny i mean i i i have uh i have fun in this head of mine i you know sometimes i'm on my own and i'm on my own a lot but um there's a party going on i don't know how or why but i feel very blessed to feel like that and to be curious i'm super curious uh i don't go searching things on the internet you know but i might you might find me on my hands and knees under a cupboard looking for something i might have dropped 20 years ago yeah i remember that thing and i'm gonna put it back together you know so that's your internet that's kind of my crazy thing also it i'm sorry at fryer park if you're looking for something you misplaced in this massive victorian uh kooky house um with a million secret passageways i know how many hidden gnomes are i know i put it near a gnome which one i'm building a nomery by the way so you know it's a word i invented and uh i have that i have a little welcome to the nomery peter jackson is helping me to enter one leave yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna do you know i do things like that or you will come over and we go i don't know what we're gonna do i don't know should we go in the caves yeah let's go to those matterhorn caves that ripped off disneyland before it was disneyland um the um yeah i'm just i know i do have a really clear memory of there's a pair of ray bands on a gnome walking through and there was a pair of ray bands on a gnome and danny said yeah my dad put those ray bands on the gnome and he just thought it was funny so we've left it there ever since it's still there and it's really hilarious yeah oh yeah they've been there now like probably 45 years 40 years something like that yeah every time i go out you know i just now he's got a thing coming out of his mouth as well like a little pipe but the pipe bit fell off you know it's yeah i actually am having some gnomes restored as we speak i was looking at them this morning i'm sorry who restores gnomes oh i know a guy oh you know a guy i got a gnome guy i bet you know a guy i bet you know a guy yeah there are gnome there are gnome groups i don't engage with them because i know never engage with a gnome group i don't engage because uh supposedly some of the first gnomes ever made have come to fryer park and they're like really valuable george used to paint them with like nail varnish and i kept saying stop doing that because these are really valuable they're like in a museum so you know so now they're all there's a little sign that george made there that stuck in the grass that says like uh what's it don't keep off the grass don't keep off the grass like just there's just little uh george's barbs everywhere when you walk around and flights of fantasy i know i know and you know even yeah to this day i don't um i just feel his presence so strongly yeah i'm laughing most of the time because i think of things that happened you know there uh which just funny stuff yeah you're talking about the wilburys you know like thanksgiving dinner and then i can't find anybody in their own the pantry eating leftovers you know with like five guys in there don't tell her i'm drinking a coca-cola one of the husbands like where's the cranberry gotta be more of that cereal yeah this is really good roy harbison's like don't tell barbara because he's having a cigarette and drinking coke i'll get in trouble roy harbison's worried he'll get in trouble so sweet the sweetest sweetest sweetest man with the most incredible voice yeah just anyway we could we could do it this for several hours and i'd be really really happy uh well i can't wait till i see you again until then would you give my love to danny i will and um just yeah anything i can ever do for you i'm here thank you and thank all of you this is special yeah this is really special and congratulations on the book it's gorgeous and i know george will be really happy oh thanks thanks for that conan o'brien needs a friend with conan o'brien sonam of sessian and mac gorley produced by me mac gorley executive produced by adam sacks jeff ross and nick leo theme song by the white stripes incidental music by jimmy vivino take it away jimmy our supervising producer is aaron blair and our associate talent producer is jennifer samples engineering and mixing by eduardo perez and brendan burns additional 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