George Harrison Had An Odd Reaction To John Lennon’s Death

Music lost a major creative genius when John Lennon died in December 1980. The entire globe was in mourning over the legend’s passing at the time. His family, fans, and friends have all come and expressed the agony they’ve experienced after Lennon’s passing, most especially with his former bandmates, The Beatles, who all had different sort of reactions when the news broke out.

In an episode on the British Television show Aspel & Company in 1988, Ringo Starr and George Harrison went on to talk about their feelings about their beloved friend’s passing. It took them years to recover and express their grief in front of the audience.

Ringo was the one to talk first. Then, when it was Harrison’s time to talk, his answer was quite shocking. “I was in bed at the time, in England,” Harrison explained. “The call came through sometime in the morning, four or five in the morning. I didn’t take the call. Olivia took the call, and she said, ‘John’s been shot.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, how bad is it?’ I just thought maybe a flesh wound or something like that, but she said, ‘No, that’s it, he’s dead.’”

He added: “I didn’t — I just went back to sleep, actually. Maybe it was just a way of getting away from it. I just went to sleep and waited to see what it said the next morning, and he was still dead the next morning, unfortunately.”

It may sound like he was insensitive towards his friend, but he went on to explain that side of things later on.

“In the Bhagavad Gita it says there was never a time where you didn’t exist, and there will never be a time where you cease to exist. The only thing that changes is our bodily condition. The soul comes in the body, and we go from birth to death.”

It’s like pulling off a suit, in Harrison’s view; the person below is unchanged. He recalled John Lennon as feeling the same thing about death. He wasn’t oblivious to Lennon’s death just as it was, but instead, he didn’t have much to worry about him, seeing that Lennon is in a better place now.

Watch the interview below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQaqcLPAI_s