Surviving members of The Beatles have shared their touching tributes to George Harrison, marking the 20th anniversary of his death. Taking to Instagram, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both shared photos of better times and wrote messages to their late friend.
November 29th, 2001, 58-year-old Harrison is struck down with lung cancer to become the second Beatle to pass away. “Hard to believe that we lost George 20 years ago,” Paul posted on Instagram along with a photograph of the two in a recording studio. “I miss my friend so much.” Sharing a photo of the pair with mop tops, wearing tuxedoes, and smoking cigars, Ringo said, “Peace and love to you George. I miss you man.”
Thankful to have had a final visit with Harrison in 2001, Paul recalls George “was still laughing and joking, very brave man. I’m just privileged to have known him and I love him like he’s my brother. It’s a very sad day for me and for a lot of other people, but I think he would have wanted us to get on and be loving and remember him as the great man he was.”
The last time Ringo caught up with George came in Switzerland, where he was being treated for his illness. Speaking in the 2011 Harrison documentary, Living in the Material World, the former Beatles drummer said he was on his way to Boston, “cause my daughter had a brain tumour”.
“And I said, ‘Well, I gotta go to Boston,’ and [Harrison] goes — they’re the last words I heard him say, actually — and he said, ‘Do you want me to come with ya?’ So that’s the incredible side of George.”
Olivia Harrison, widow to George, shared a post of Harrison’s song, Within You, Without You, whilst captioning it; “We love you, George.”
A young George, Ringo, Paul, and John can all be seen in the Peter Jackson film, The Beatles: Get Back, which recently released on Disney+. An upcoming biopic is also due with Brian Epstein’s Midas Man beginning to take shape, announcing its cast to play the Liverpool quartet.
