But an explosive new documentary about George Harrison — produced by his
WIFE— reveals the truth about his womanising, drug-taking and rock 'n' roll excess.
In George Harrison: Living In The Material World, those closest to the musician, including surviving Beatles bandmates Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, open up about George's secret side.
His widow Olivia tells how she had to fend off women attracted to him. Macca says that George "liked the things that men like. He was red-blooded".
Guitar legend Eric Clapton talks at length about his steamy relationship with Pattie Boyd, George's first wife. When Clapton told his friend George that he was falling for Pattie, the Beatle replied: "You can have her." It was, Clapton believes, an example of George's open attitude to sexual relationships.
Yesterday ... Pattie Boyd with Clapton in 1974
Dave Gerrard/The Sun
It is rumoured that George slept with Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood's wife Krissie at a drug-fuelled party, as well as Ringo Starr's wife Maureen on another occasion. The documentary, directed by Martin Scorsese, is on in selected cinemas for one night only tomorrow and out on DVD on October 10.
It took Olivia, 63, five years to make. She was married to George from 1978 until lung cancer ended his life nearly ten years ago, in November 2001, when he was 58.
With searing honesty she said: "He was really a free person and did not like to be bound by rules. But he did like women and women did like him.
"And whether he just said a couple of words to a woman, he honestly had a profound effect on them. I was not the only person who had to live with someone who was well loved, so that was always a challenge."
She says the couple grew stronger by overcoming these "hiccups".
He had earlier been married to Pattie Boyd for eight years. They split up in 1974. Revealing how he first broke the news of his feelings for Pattie to George, Clapton said: "When we did finally start to act it out I went to George straight away and said, 'Look, this is going to happen and there are already feelings there. And I have to know how you feel about that'.
"It was almost, 'If you want me to stop and go away, I will'. He was really cavalier — 'you can have her'. It had already got to that before — swapping, there was all that Sixties free love stuff.
"And George's attitude seemed to make more sense in a way. This was all material stuff. I thought, 'Oh God, this is giving me carte blanche'. "
Legacy ... George Harrison's son, Dhani
RexThe two men remained friends even after Pattie married Clapton. One of the worst moments of George's life came in 1999 when schizophrenic Michael Abram broke into his country house in Oxfordshire in the middle of the night and stabbed him eight times.
Olivia said: "I ran in the room and something just took over and I picked up a poker... I hit the guy several times and I could see the blood coming out of his blond hair.
"Then he got up and chased me and had me round the neck. Then George jumped on his back."
Despite being badly wounded, George managed to wrestle the knife away. Abram was cleared of attempted murder on the grounds of insanity. He spent 19 months in a secure hospital.
George's only son Dhani, 33, believes the attack made it more difficult for his father to fight the cancer he had been diagnosed with in 1997. He said: "He was very, very badly attacked. It definitely took years off his life, to be trying to fight cancer and then have something like that. It's got to take it out of you."
In archive footage in the documentary George, who got heavily involved in Indian mysticism and the spiritual life, also talks about taking LSD.
It is also rumoured that he took cocaine.
Many contributors to the documentary praise George's musicianship. Although Lennon and McCartney were the main songwriters in The Beatles, George wrote the hit Something and the much-loved song Here Comes The Sun. He also had huge successes as a solo artist, including the No1 My Sweet Lord.
And, while he claimed he was not interested in "material" things, he was very wealthy, leaving £99million in his will.
But Ringo will always remember him as someone who would do anything to help a friend. In the documentary, Ringo cries as he recalls their last meeting when George was very sick with cancer.
He said: "I had to go to Boston because my daughter had a brain tumour. And the last words he said to me were, 'Do you want me to come with you?' And that was George."
Dhani said it was an amazing experience being brought up by the former Beatle.
He added: "He would say to me every day, 'You don't have to go to school today. Do you want to go to a yacht in the South Pacific and sail away for ever?'
"A lot of people would say you were an idiot for not doing that — and probably I am. But to rebel in my family was to want to go to school."
The book George Harrison: Living In The Material World, by Olivia Harrison, published by Abrams, is out today.
