During an interview with British television back in the 80’s, The Beatles bassist and singer Paul McCartney recalled why George Harrison‘s father punched their teacher and became the “school hero” when they were young.
Paul McCartney said about George Harrison’s father punching their teacher:
The interviewed asked Paul if he ever got “caned for being naughty”, so he told the funny story involving Harrison’s father: “I remeber this time that George got caned, because we were mates at school. I mean, we really never did anything wrong. But we might like have tight trousers and ted hair. So that pointed you out to somebody that you were a troublemaker.”
“George got done once and the Teacher missed him and got him here (Points out to his wrist). So he had a couple of big wheels (In his wrist), you know those rash things and he went home and he is having his tea with his dad and they’re all chating about how it went at school and he says ‘what’s that?’, they saw these things and George told him, you know ‘teacher did it’.”
“So the next day we were in class and somebody pop the head around the door and said ‘mister’, you know, who ever the teacher was and said ‘George, come out for a moment please’. He came out and it was George’s dad there, he said: ‘Did you do that to my son?’ and the said said ‘Yes’, and he goes “whackkkk” (Paul imitates George’s father punching the teacher).”
The interviwer then asked “What hapenned after that?”. Paul answers: “Oh, he was a hero. It was just the school hero then, George’s that. I used to tell my dad ‘i’ve got caned’ and he said ‘well, you probably did something wrong…’
In a recent interview with The New York Times Paul recalled his last conversation with George Harrison:
“We said silly things. We were in New York before he went to Los Angeles to die, and they were silly but important to me. And, I think, important to him. We were sitting there, and I was holding his hand, and it occurred to me — I’ve never told this — I don’t want to hold George’s hand. You don’t hold your mate’s hands.”
“I mean, we didn’t anyway. And I remember he was getting a bit annoyed at having to travel all the time — chasing a cure. He’d gone to Geneva to see what they could do. Then he came to a special clinic in New York to see what they could do. Then the thought was to go to L.A. and see what they could do. He was sort of getting a bit, “Can’t we just stay in one place?”