The Stabbing and Death from Cancer of The Beatles’ George Harrison

The best-known solo album by George Harrison it’s called All Things Must Pass. Launched in 1970, the work features a title whose free translation into Portuguese says “everything must pass”.

Although Harrison believed strongly in the transitory character of human nature and was a person beyond spiritual, people close to him believe that his death may have been caused, on November 29, 2001, aged 58, by a traumatic episode experienced almost two years before . Not everything went to George — and it’s perfectly understandable that it should have been that way. The following article brings information from the website Igor Miranda.

George Harrison in the 1990s

After spending the 1980s on and off with his solo career and dedicating himself to the supergroup Traveling Wilburys, George Harrison entered the 1990s touring with his friend Eric Clapton by Japan. It was his first tour in almost two decades – the last one was in 1974 – and the final one, since he would only go on stage again in sporadic situations, such as participating in a tribute to bob dylan at the madison square gardenin the United States.

Part of the decade brought Harrison revisiting his own trajectory. The guitarist participated in the project Beatles Anthologystarted in 1994, along with two other remnants of the Beatles, Paul McCartney It is Ringo Starras well as the partner Jeff Lynne (LINK).

It has been almost 15 years since the death of John Lennon, but even before that, from the band’s demise in 1970, no member of the world’s most popular band has looked back. It was the first time that the legacy would be explored, now for a multimedia retrospective project that even involved the reworking of two songs left as a demo by Lennon: “free as a bird” It is “real love”. There were plans to recover a third track, but George did not want to.

In 1997, as soon as he returned to collaborate with Ravi Shankar, the musician — and heavy smoker — was diagnosed with throat cancer. He underwent radiotherapy treatment and was considered cured.

attacked with knife

On December 30, 1999, almost two years before he died, George Harrison had his home, a neo-Gothic mansion in the south east of England, invaded by a man named Michael Abram. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, the 34-year-old man attacked the guitarist and pierced one of his lungs with a kitchen knife, in addition to causing injuries to his head. In all, the stabbing caused 40 injuries to the artist. Part of the lung affected by the episode had to be removed.

The situation could have been even worse if not for the wife of George, Olivia, who hit the assailant with a fireplace poker and a lamp. The attack was motivated by a delirium of openwho thought that the Beatles they were “witches who flew around on broomsticks” and that he had been “appointed by God to kill” the guitarist, seen as a “sorcerer and the devil”.

In a statement during the trial of open (via Igor Miranda), Harrison he said that when he was attacked, he felt his “strength being drained” from him. The musician reported remembering the moment of perforation “vividly” and felt the blood in his mouth. He thought he was going to die. The criminal was judged incapable, due to the mental health problem, and was interned in a psychiatric institution until 2002.

The return of cancer, but in the lung

It wasn’t long before cancer George Harrison return, but in another part of the body: precisely in the lung. In 2001, the tumor rose to the brain and it was necessary to perform surgery, performed in Switzerland.

Although there is no scientific evidence for this thesis, many people close to George they believe that the knife attack suffered at the end of 1999 was decisive for the guitarist’s return from cancer. For them, the stress and emotional suffering to which the musician was subjected made his health wither.

No one speaks publicly about this idea, but the biographer Peter Doggett recorded it in his book You Never Give Me Your Moneyabout the life of each member of the Beatles after the band broke up. Among the most famous in the artist’s circle, the one who came closest to addressing the theory at the time was the guitarist Eric Claptonwho declared (via Cheat Sheet):

“George he was still very distraught and didn’t seem to know where to go with his life after the attack. I could only use my own situation with drug addiction as a reference, encouraging the potential use of some sort of support system.”

Already a personal helper of George, who was not identified, presented the thesis more directly. “That attack changed him. We all feel it. And we were pretty sure that was why the cancer came back. He looked so good, but after the attack he didn’t have the strength to fight anymore,” he said.

Last days and death

In the month he died, George Harrison underwent radiotherapy treatment at Staten Island University Hospital, in New York, in the United States. The non-small cell lung cancer had spread to the brain for good.

The information was disclosed without the consent of Harrison. The guitarist publicly lamented that his doctor violated his privacy and after his death.

The fact is that everyone already knew that George was in an advanced condition of the disease. The musician himself was aware of this. Rather than spend his final days in a hospital bed, he traveled to Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and stayed at an estate owned by Paul McCartney.

devotee of Hare Krishna, George Harrison died in the company of two other friends of the faith, who were singing verses from one of the sacred books of Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita. He was also accompanied by Olivia It is dhaniyour son, as well as other family members and friends, such as Ravi Shankar, who played sitar for longtime partner. O Beatle timid died on November 29, 2001, aged 58.

A statement released by Olivia It is dhani brought his final message, which read, “Everything else can wait, but the pursuit of God cannot wait and love one another.”

A year after his death, George Harrison had their final album released. brainwashed brought a series of recordings that the musician had been working on since 1988. The project was interrupted and resumed several times by the artist, who in 2001 was still working on the material. Recordings were completed by Jeff Lynne It is Dhani Harrison.