Former Lennon and Harrison Drummer Jim Keltner Shares Intimate Behind The Scene Stories

Session drummer Jim Keltner, spoke on his experiences playing with former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, noting their distinct personalities.

Keltner revealed all the details in an interview with Uncut. [George] “Harrison was the most unusual person. John [Lennon] was just very, very normal. He was a regular kind of guy: funny, incredibly smart, and incredibly fast with everything. Nothing took a long time. When we got to hanging out, it was fantastic, but it was like living in a cloud. There’s so much John stuff that I just can’t remember because we were so loaded, and everything was so condensed, time-wise. George was just the opposite. With George, it was always kind of mystifying how he would come up with stuff to do, and how easily he made it happen.”

He also noted that despite their differences in personalities, both had the desire to make “brutal” comments to their former bandmate, Paul McCartney, yet they wouldn’t let others join in. On talking about his late friend, Harrison, the session drummer said: “Sometimes I feel like I’m making him sound too much like he was a saint. By no means was the man a saint! Over the years with him and John, they could both be really brutal with Paul. I learned very early on that I couldn’t join them. They both on different occasions said, ‘We can say that, but you shouldn’t.’ They were truly brothers who loved taking the piss out of each other, but they didn’t want anybody else doing it.”