The Beatles Boxed Set (52 page)

            Their
tours began on December 14, 1991. The tickets quickly sold out and earned more
than $10 million in just a few hours. The duo performed over three weeks; by
his fourth performance, George’s enthusiasm in performing returned.

            He
played some old Beatles’ songs, including
I Want to Tell You, Old Brown Shoe
and
Taxman.
On the second night, George’s son, 13-year-old Dhani,
grabbed a tambourine and joined in the chorus of
Roll Over, Beethoven.
When
the song ended, George brought his arm around his son’s shoulders and left the
stage as the audience clapped and cheered.

George’s
fascination and practice of Hinduism continued until his death. Whenever he had
even the smallest chance, he would chant on his beads, sometimes alone, and at
times in the company of his devoted friends. He surrounded his Friar Park home
with images of Krishna. He would also meditate and surround himself with
devotees of Hinduism.

            The
following years were a blur to George. He and the other surviving Beatles had
worked on
The Beatles Anthology
, a set of three double albums and a book
that focused on the history of the group.

            He
also spent more time in his Friar Park home, finally acting on his interest in gardening
and restoring the grounds of the property. He even considered himself more a
gardener than a musician.

            In
July 1997, George was gardening when he felt a lump on his neck. The following
month, he underwent surgery to have the enlarged lymph nodes removed. A biopsy
revealed that the nodes were malignant. After recovering from the surgery,
George was back to his garden, planting and chanting at the same time.

            A
few weeks later, George returned to the hospital for a suspected recurrence of
throat cancer. In January and May 1998, he returned once again to the hospital
for observation, after which the doctors declared that the cancer had not
recurred.

            At
this point in his life, George, along with Paul and Ringo, were the third
highest-paid entertainers in the world, just behind Oprah Winfrey and Steven
Spielberg. An online religion called Beatlism began, encouraging its followers
to get in touch with their “inner George” and “inner Ringo.”

            With
this new interest in Beatlemania came the renewed incursions into George’s
life. Over the next months, thieves climbed a high wall at Friar Park and stole
two bronze busts valued at £50,000. In December, a woman broke into the
Harrison retreat in Hawaii and ate pizza and did the laundry until police came.

            The
incidents became escalated. In the wee hours of the morning of December 31,
1999, George and Olivia were woken by a loud crash from the ground floor. He
came out and stood on top of the stairs and saw a dark figure below the
staircase. The mess on the ground floor told George that the man broke one of
the French windows using a statue from the grounds outside.

            The
intruder yelled, “You get down here! You know what it is!”

            George
began chanting “Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!” in a vain hope of distracting the
intruder. It worried him that the intruder might go after his wife, son or
mother-in-law, who was also in the house. He fought with the intruder, who
jabbed at him with a six-inch blade. Olivia heard the commotion and came to
George’s rescue. In the ensuing battle, George was stabbed eight times. Olivia
hit the intruder’s head with a table lamp.

            The
police and an ambulance arrived. Miraculously, George survived the ordeal. He
even managed to keep a sense of humor despite the near-death experience. When
he was asked who the intruder was, he jibed, “He wasn’t a burglar – and he
definitely wasn’t auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys.”

            Later
on, George learned that the intruder suffered from “abnormality of mind” and
believed that George’s chanting was “the language of Satan spoken backwards”
and that “such sorcerers should not be allowed to live.”

            George
survived eight knife wounds, but old age was catching up with him. Now he felt
the need to pause every now and then to catch his breath. Even pruning a tree
that he planted thirty years before took slower than before. But his voice
remained clear. That year, he had planted four hundred maple trees and spent
much of his time walking around his property, picking up a flower or a leaf
that caught his attention.

            Michael
Palin said, “I think he saw in that garden an affirmation that life goes on.
That seemed to give him great pleasure in the last years of his life. It was
almost as though the body might be weakening, but everything around him was an
affirmation of life and the continuity of life.”

            George
was a brave person and never forgot to tell his friends how much he loved them.
In March 2001, doctors discovered cancer in his lungs. Though a growth was
removed, the cancer spread. And then the doctors also discovered a malignancy
on his brain. But George was never the person to mope. Dhani recalled, “Even
when he first found out that he was ill years ago and the doctor gave him –
what, six months to live? He was just like, ‘Bollocks!’ He was never afraid. He
was willing to try and get better, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t attached to
this world in the way most people would be. He was on to bigger and better
things. And he had a real total and utter disinterest in worrying and being
stressed. My dad had no fear of dying whatsoever. I can’t stress that enough,
really.”

            George
took his family to Varanasi India and bathed in the Ganges, a traditional practice
for one who is preparing to die.

            Upon
their return, Olivia tried to find a cure. George was in New York when Ringo
visited him and stayed for hours. His sister Louise also came and told him that
her son had taken up Transcendental Meditation.

            Paul
also visited George. They recalled their younger days, shared jokes, hugged and
cried. That last visit was the first time they held hands.

            George
finally succumbed at age 58 on November 29, 2001. The day that the memorial
service was held in Los Angles, the sun shone brightly. For his family and for
those whose beliefs he had influenced, it wasn’t the end of everything that was
George. And in the words of a friend of George’s, “… I can say from my heart
that George was out there on the astral plane. I just felt him. Everybody
agreed. We just knew.”

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