Dhani Harrison

Его девушки больше похожи на Патти Бойд, а не на мексиканских красоток.

Interviewer: What would you ask your father if he were around?


Dhani: ”Where have you been?”

“I had a dream that I saw him and that was what I said to him in the dream, so I guess that’s what would be the question. “Where’ve you been since I last saw you?” And he answered, so I can tell you the answer as well which was “Here the whole time.” Which doesn’t really help me in any way but you know.”

“My earliest memory of my dad is probably of him somewhere in a garden covered in dirt, somewhere hot, a tropical garden, in jeans, khakis, covered in dirt just continuously planting trees. I think that’s what I thought he did for the first seven years of my life. I was completely unaware that he had anything to do with music. I came home one day from school after being chased by kids singing ‘Yellow Submarine’, and I didn’t understand why. It just seemed surreal: why are they singing that song to me? I came home and I freaked out on my dad: ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were in The Beatles?’ And he said, ‘Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.’” - Dhani Harrison

George Harrison and his wife Olivia with their son Dhani at LAX airport in 1998

“Scorsese interviewed everyone three times. He interviewed me twice for about two hours each time. Then only used, what, 10 seconds. He’s very thorough. He gets to the core of things. I think he’s an incredible person.”

Dhani - GQ Magazine

George Harrison: Living In The Material World, which airs over two nights on October 4 and 5 on HBO, features an avalanche of interviews with the musicians and close friends who knew the guitarist best. None are as revealing as those with his wife, Olivia, who also served as producer, and his only son, Dhani. Now 33 and an accomplished musician in his own right—he fronts the thenewno2, whose new EP, EP002, was released in September—George’s spitting image son was born almost a full decade after the Beatles’s dissolution. Naturally, Dhani knew a different George. We chatted with Dhani about the documentary, getting validation from his idols, and his old pal, Wu-Tang Clan’s the RZA.

GQ: This film has your father’s diehard fans feeling quite validated. How did it get off the ground?
Dhani Harrison: The way it first started was my mother thinking about doing a documentary. One of her friends had dinner with Scorsese and the conversation over dinner was, “I’m done doing documentaries.” He was like “What? What are you talking about? You’re Martin Scorsese. Why don’t you make some more?” He said “No, no. The only thing that I’d be interested in doing would be a George Harrison documentary.” And my mom’s friend said, “Well, that’s funny ‘cause I was just speaking with Olivia Harrison and she wants to do a documentary.” It literally came together just like that. [Martin and my mom] spoke on the phone and it was on.

GQ: I’ve read that you and your mother were quite inspired by Scorsese’s Bob Dylan documentary, No Direction Home.
Dhani Harrison: We love that documentary. You know that thing when Bob is standing there and is like [Editor’s note: at this point Harrison makes his best effort to recite a scene in the film where Dylan, reading a store sign, mumbles jibberish.] ”I need someone to cut my clips, wash my clothes, wash my dog, deliver me back to the cigarettes, animal my soul.” That’s classic.

GQ: Good memory. I can only imagine you knew what you were getting into when you signed on to work with Scorsese. He’s legendarily obsessive about his projects.
Dhani Harrison: I mean, he’s Martin Scorsese. Him and David Tedeschi, the editor [who also cut No Direction Home], both went and started meditating as a way to try and get to the core of the subject. They stuck with that. I think it’s beneficial for everyone.
[Dhani interrupts the conversation to attend his dog Edison.]
Sorry my dog’s got a squeaky toy that’s really annoying. [To the dog] No squeaky toy for this interview, Edison.

GQ: No worries. So you were talking about working with Scorcese.
Dhani Harrison: So, I got to know him a little bit. He keeps it very true. He’s a stickler. He’s completely obsessive-compulsive. And you can see that. My mom’s completely obsessive-compulsive. So they got on like a house on fire. A bunch of OCD people who are extremely talented doing this extreme job of archiving all the footage and everything.

GQ: How did he uncover all of the outstanding, previously unseen footage that appears in the film?
Dhani Harrison: We had a really great friend of mine who did all the archiving for the Harrison estate. This guy called Richard Brandford. He worked with a bunch of people from Marty’s people who found footage that no one had ever seen before. They came out with all the great stuff. It’s been about five years of just looking, speaking. Scorsese interviewed everyone three times. He interviewed me twice for about two hours each time. Then only used, what, 10 seconds. He’s very thorough. He gets to the core of things. I think he’s an incredible person.

GQ: It must be bizarre to watch home movies become a four-hour documentary.
Dhani Harrison: That’s the bit that people really haven’t seen. Everyone’s seen the Beatles. There’s no comparison to any form of documentaries that have been out before. It’s totally different.

GQ: Is it like reliving the past?
Dhani Harrison: I was there for everything obviously from when I was born onward. I lived the life once with my dad. And then it’s like watching your own life back through the eyes of Martin Scorsese…which is totally weird.

GQ: You mentioned Scorcese started meditating for this project. I know your father was certainly high on it, but are you a big proponent of mediation?
Dhani Harrison: That’s the one thing that you have to do. Not for anyone’s sake other than your own. Missing out on that, that’s missing out on the real bit of life. We can all do festivals, interviews, and everything but if you’re missing out on that, then that’s a lot to leave on the table.

GQ: Speaking of festivals, I got a chance to see you join Pearl Jam onstage at their recent 20th anniversary blowout festival. How do you know Eddie and the gang?
Dhani Harrison: I met them at the Bob Dylan festival, the tribute concert back in ‘92. I was like 14 or something. We were in rehearsals. My dad laid me on them cause he had to go and do rehearsals. So he left me with Pearl Jam. They were like my heroes. They were just like “Okay Mr. Harrison” and looked after me. That was the night that Sinead O’Connor got booed offstage. Remember that? I watched that whole thing go down from the wing of the stage with Kris Kristofferson, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder. It was crazy. And then about a year ago I was in Seattle with Fistful of Mercy [a trio he fronts with Ben Harper and Joseph Arthur] and we ended up at Eddie’s house, cause Ben Harper is obviously a really good friend of Eddie’s. Basically we ended up over at Eddie’s to play a game of Laird Hamilton ax darts—I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about the ax darts. We played ax darts, and I think halfway through the evening, Eddie looked at me and was kinda like, “Oh my God, you’re that kid! You were that kid from all those years ago, but you grew up.” And it was really funny ‘cause he took me over to his stereo and he showed me that he had a copy of the Fistful of Mercy record. And I was just so blown away. Getting approval from your heroes is a very cool thing in life. I highly recommend it to anyone.

GQ: I noticed the RZA, of all people, is on your other band, thenewno2’s new EP.
Dhani Harrison: RZA is an old pal. He’s a really, really sweet guy. I’m a huge Wu-Tang fan. ODB is my guy. I got a bit obsessed with him from the first time I heard his record. One day I got a call and [Wu-Tang’s people] said, “Can we use your sample?” And I said “Of course you can. You’re the Wu-Tang Clan.” So [RZA] returned the favor by playing on newno2.

GQ: One last thought on the documentary. With so much personal interest vested in it, what do you hope people take away from the film?
Dhani Harrison: [Long pause] Take from it what you will. We all know how it ends. It’s heavy. [My dad] was a very interesting guy. I’m still learning from him.