George Harrison was known as the “quiet” Beatle during his time with the world-famous rock band. And, for the most part, he kept up that reputation of not being particularly loud-mouthed. However, on this day in 1997, Harrison decided to go off on a few bands in the music industry at the time.
On this day in 1997, a French magazine called Le Figaro published an interview with the former guitarist of The Beatles. In that interview, Harrison sat down to promote the then-upcoming Ravi Shankar record Chants Of India, as he produced the project. However, the conversation quickly shifted from the album to Harrison’s own thoughts about then-modern music. And his opinions weren’t exactly glittering. He took jabs at everyone from U2 to The Spice Girls.
The “Quiet” Beatle, George Harrison, Was Once Pretty Loud About His Opinions of the Music Industry in the 90s
“Bono and his band are so egocentric,” Harrison told the magazine his opinion of the Irish band U2. “The more you jump around, the bigger your hat is, the more people listen to your music. The only important thing is to sell and make money. It’s nothing to do with talent.”
Harrison had similar sentiments for the Britpop band Oasis. And, sorry, Spice Girls fans. Harrison also had a few choice words about The Spice Girls, who were also enjoying quite a successful heyday in the 90s, just as U2 and Oasis were at the time.
“The good thing about them is that you can look at them with the sound turned down,” said Harrison of The Spice Girls
Ouch.While it seems as though none of the members of The Spice Girls publicly hit back at Harrison, U2’s Bono wasn’t very happy with the former Beatle’s comments. After the interview was published, Bono and his band performed at a concert in Leeds. He took to the microphone to quite publicly give the former Beatle a stiff middle finger.
“Good people of Yorkshire, you are making a terrible mistake,” Bono shouted to the crowd, before raising his middle finger. “George Harrison says you shouldn’t be here. He said it’s all about big hats, lemons, and egos. This one’s for you George!”
Naturally, that didn’t get through to Harrison. He stuck to his guns and would later say that the music of the 90s was “a pollution and has no value at all.”
I can’t imagine what Harrison would think of today’s world of music if he were alive. I don’t think he’d be a fan, though.
