The joke George Harrison made after being stabbed 40 times
The Beatles’ lead guitarist George Harrison, befriended Monty Python’s Eric Idle in the mid-1970s, and the pair discovered a deep connection. The duo found a kindred spirit in one another as well as Idle finding a financier in Harrison. Their relationship was a strong one, built on sardonic wit and an acerbic sense of humour. It would allow the two to bond over their unstoppable fame and apparent distrust of it.
The two men had a lot in common. Following Harrison’s death in 2001, Idle revealed that he felt their connection had been strengthened by having a shared position within their respective groups. They were both, for all intents and purposes, the “quiet ones” of their troupes.
Idle once told Rolling Stone: “It occurred to me later that we both played similar roles inside our groups with big power blocks. Once I was moaning a little bit on [Life of] Brian, saying, ‘It was hard to get onscreen with Michael Palin and John Cleese.’ He said, ‘Well, imagine what it’s like trying to get studio time with Lennon and McCartney.’ I said, ‘All right. Absolutely. Got it. OK. Check. I’ll shut up now.’ Then it occurred to me that yes, in fact, we were slightly the outsiders, playing similar roles in our groups.”
In his 2018 memoir, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography, Idle explained that he first met Harrison at a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “I had heard that George wanted to meet me, but I was somewhat shy of meeting him.” Idle wrote. Of course, that was to be expected, Harrison had long made his name as a member of The Beatles and his place not only as a pop star but a cultural heavyweight was unavoidable. “I was shy and tried to avoid him, but he snuck up on me in the back of the theatre as the credits began to roll. I hadn’t yet learned he was unstoppable.”
“We began a conversation that would last about twenty-four hours,” Idle revealed of their instant connection. “Who could resist his opening line? ‘We can’t talk here. Let’s go and have a reefer in the projection booth.’ No telling what the startled projectionist felt as a Beatle came in with one of the actors from the movie he had just projected and lit up a joint.”
This cannabis-fuelled meeting marked the beginning of a long and meaningful friendship between the comedian and musician and Idle has frequently praised Harrison as having been his “Guru” of sorts as he guided him through life with enlightening perspective.
Among the important values that Harrison imparted unto Idle was to live in the moment and, ironically enough, to find humour in every situation, no matter how dark or risque. It’s the kind of attitude that one needs as time carries on, and the darker moments seem to appear more readily around each corner.
In December 1999, just over 19 years after former bandmate John Lennon met his fate after a fatal shooting in New York, Harrison was stabbed multiple times, with some reports suggesting it was over 40 times, in the chest as he confronted an intruder at his home at Friar Park Estate in Oxfordshire. Fortunately, Harrison wasn’t killed by the attacker and his wife Olivia came to help subdue the intruder.
Olivia struck the mentally unstable intruder, 33-year-old Liverpudlian Michael Abram, with a fire poker. Harrison’s wife recalled part of the incident: “I hit the guy several times, and I could see the blood spreading down his blonde hair, and then he got up, and he chased me. He had me around the neck, and George got up and jumped on his back. And poor George, you know, he said later: ‘Just when he got off of me, I was thinking, ‘Oh good, now I have to go fight him’”.
While the incident was tragic, it was overshadowed by the former Beatles’ well-placed sense of humour. When he and his family were questioned by the police about the incident, Harrison, never afraid to share a joke, allegedly replied: “It wasn’t a burglar, and he certainly wasn’t auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys.”
Shortly after the attack, while Harrison was still recovering from his wounds, Idle called to check on his friend. With a dark view of recovery up ahead and a raft of visitors deathly concerned about his well-being, Harrison turned to humour to help shed a little light on his situation. In his autobiography, Idle wrote that Harrison had said, “Why doesn’t this kind of thing happen to The Rolling Stones?”
This dark humour and quick wit were characteristic of Harrison and his fellow Beatles, but they mask the sad truth that fame of such dizzying heights can have serious side effects beyond one’s control. It’s the kind of outlook someone should advise Eric Idle to write a song about.
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