The peculiar moment George Harrison ran over his own foot with a tractor
What’s the wildest rock and roll injury story you can remember?
Bob Dylan crashing his motorbike, Patti Smith breaking her neck onstage in 1977, Pete Townshend impaling his hand on his whammy bar during The Who’s reunion tour in 1989 (which they obviously should have called their re-Whonion tour) or the time that Keith Richards fell out of a palm tree, causing the cancellation of the next Rolling Stones tour?
Or how about this one: George Harrison running over his own foot with a tractor.
It’s not much of a stretch to picture ‘the quiet Beatle’ at work in his garden; in fact, you only have to imagine the cover of his debut solo album, All Things Must Pass, looking like a certified Flower Pot Man. Dhani Harrison has even said that some of his earliest memories of his father have the older Harrison covered in dirt, digging about in flower beds and patches as he keenly planted trees, flowers and vegetables in the grounds of their home.
You’d probably have to say that Harrison was actually something more than just a hobbyist, as he personally tended the grounds at his sprawling Friar Park estate in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, from when he purchased it in 1970 until his untimely death in 2001, often speaking over the years about his growing disinterest in the music business and his deepening love of connecting with nature, relaying at one point, “I’m really quite simple. I don’t want to be in the business full time, because I’m a gardener. I plant flowers and watch them grow”.
He took the sentiment even further at one point, describing himself as “a gardener who wrote one or two good tunes”. And what tunes they were! But also, what gardens he tended. The grounds of Friar Park are spectacular, and both demonstrate the love that Harrison had for nature and equally make you fall in love with it all just as much.
Speaking to that love of nature, Harrison once expanded on what draws him to working with soil and seed, saying that “In the garden you see all the seasons come and go and whatever you do can affect it all. At the same time the flowers don’t answer you back, they don’t give you no trouble”.
But his tractor did once give him some trouble. Having had to postpone a Los Angeles press conference ahead of the launch of his then-new eponymous 1979 album, he apologised to the gathered press that “First of all, let me say I’m sorry about that to all of you who were supposed to be here on Monday. I ran over my foot on Saturday in a tractor, and I had to go and X-ray it to make sure I hadn’t broken anything. I was a bit dizzy, you see, hopping about, trying to pack, and I just couldn’t make it.”
He explained in great detail what went on, saying, “I was driving a tractor along the road in the garden down a path and couldn’t find the accelerator to go faster so I knocked it out of gear and the thing just started rolling down this hill and I put my foot on the brake and the brakes weren’t working so I drove up a little bank to try and slow down a bit and put my foot in the road, ’cause it was only a small one of those things and ran over my foot with the back wheel and just, crash! It was just a bad sprain. I just couldn’t put my weight on it at all. I had to have a wheelchair for a few days. But I got a bit of sympathy.”
If George Harrison could see the way that the natural world is being ravaged by climate change, if he could see the rapid crop failure that is on the horizon in the UK and weakening food security, coupled with the apocalypse being faced by our insect and pollinating populations, he would be horrified.
We should all strive to be a little more Harrison, ready to get our hands dirty and immerse ourselves in nature. If you’ve got a garden, do what he would do and love and care for it, cultivate the soil and encourage all sorts of wonderful wildlife to find safe haven in your garden. Grow your own fruit and vegetables, a variety of herbs and plants and flowers, dig your own pond, encourage as much diversity, colour, fragrance and nature to make its home in and around your home. After all, what is life without a beautiful flower, a bee to pollinate it and a home-grown meal at the end of the day? Not much at all, but just be careful with your tractors.
