George Harrison Once Dodged A Drug Bust

Rockstars before aren’t novices when it comes to drug-related news. Drugs, booze, and rock are quite synonymous before; legends range from the likes of Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Beatles were among the few bands who were always on the front page when it comes to stories like this.

It became an issue when The Beatles became open in admitting that they were freely using LSD and any other recreational drugs upon the creation of some of their finest albums, Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. But, at the very least, The Beatles had the power to control the story regarding their use of drugs – unlike their contemporary – The Rolling Stones, who were always busted by the authorities for doing the same.

The Stones, who were avid party throwers and drug users before, often combined leisure when the time was right. Inside one of these occasions, was the notorious Keith Richards’ Redlands house party that became an outlet to detain some of the Stones’ members: Richards, Mick Jagger, their entourage, and even Marianne Faithful. However, the police came dangerously close to arresting another star who was also present: George Harrison.

Harrison freely spoke about the incident in a 1988 interview with MTV, wherein he recalled what had happened during this time. “I think the story, how I heard it, was that there’s a newspaper in England called The News of the World. They printed a story about [pop stars using drugs] – it was supposed to be Brian Jones, but they made a mistake and said it was Mick Jagger. So, Mick sued the newspaper and the newspaper decided that they weren’t going to be sued, they were going to get him or all The Rolling Stones, or whatever.”

He added further: “So, they set up with the local police to bust his house, and that night I happened to be there. I was there very late, three or four in the morning, and then when I left, they were all busted and put in jail.”

Harrison also believed that the newspaper intentionally didn’t capture a Beatle at that time to further exploit the fame they got from jailing stars, time after time. Fortunately, Harrison got out before another “operation” went down, as he found himself completely immersed in another spiritual adventure brought about by Hinduism.