Legendary guitarist George Harrison said he “couldn’t join a band” with Paul McCartney after The Beatles’ split.
Harrison would work with Fab Four bandmates John Lennon and Ringo Starr on various projects after The Beatles’ break-up, but he and McCartney would only work together once before revisiting unreleased material from the band. McCartney and his wife, Linda, provided backing vocals on All Those Years Ago, the fourth track of Harrison’s 1981 album, Somewhere in England. He and McCartney, joined by drummer Starr, would lay down new instrumentals for Free as a Bird and Real Love.
But Harrison maintained for years he could not join a band with McCartney again, and while it was “nothing personal”, the Something and All Things Must Pass songwriter said he was more inclined to work with Lennon. A press conference appearance from Harrison confirmed he “couldn’t join a band” with his former bandmate again.
He said: “Paul is a fine bass player, but he’s a bit overpowering at times. To tell the truth, I’d join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn’t join a band with Paul McCartney. It’s nothing personal; it’s just from a musical point of view.”
McCartney later commented on how he saw his relationship with Harrison and drummer Starr, saying he would “talk down to” Harrison. He said: “So, being close to each other in age, we talked — although I tended to talk down to him, because he was a year younger. (I know now that that was a failing I had all the way through the Beatle years).
“If you’ve known a guy when he’s thirteen and you’re fourteen, it’s hard to think of him as grown-up. I still think of George as a young kid.”
Harrison and McCartney would eventually work together in sessions for The Beatles’ Anthology. While Free as a Bird and Real Love was released, work on Now and Then stalled until 2023, over twenty years after Harrison’s death.
The trio, joined by Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne, could not get the track to an acceptable quality as it was “almost totally lacking in verses,” according to Lynne. But Harrison’s assessment of the project was much harsher, with the legendary guitarist calling Now and Then “fucking rubbish.”
Harrison’s work on the track from their sessions in the 1990s was used on the eventually released track, with Now and Then nominated for a Grammy.
