Onstage, Concert for Bangladesh, August 1, 1971. Photographer unnamed.
“I think his voice is great, I love that sort of madness. And as a person he’s somebody who — well, as he said, ‘Time will tell who has fell and who’s been left behind.’ Bob is still out there and whether you like him or not he’s Bob. I’ve always listened to his music. I’m thankful there’s people like that.” - George Harrison, Musician, March 1990
“I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan and I’ve got all his records and I’ve always liked him and I’ll like him and go on liking him regardless.” - George Harrison, Wanted Man: In Search of Bob Dylan (1998)
“I mean, you tell me one person other than Bob Dylan who has a moral message in a tune that’s improved upon Bob’s words in his song ‘Every Grain of Sand’: ‘Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistakes/Like Cain I now behold this chain of events that I must break/In the fury of the moment I can see the Masters hand/In every leaf that trembles/In every grain of sand/Oh the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yester-year/Like criminals they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer/…I gaze into the doorway of temptations angry flame/And every time I pass that way/I always hear my name/Then onward in my journey/I come to understand/That every grain is numbered/Like every grain of sand.’” - George Harrison, Billboard, June 19, 1999 “They had a soul connection.” - Olivia Harrison, Rolling Stone, September 15, 2011
Q: “Tell me about George Harrison.” Bob Dylan: “George got stuck with being the Beatle that had to fight to get songs on records because of Lennon and McCartney. Well, who wouldn’t get stuck? If George had had his own group and was writing his own songs back then, he’d have been probably just as big as anybody. George had an uncanny ability to just play chords that didn’t seem to be connected in any kind of way and come up with a melody and a song. I don’t know anybody else who could do that, either. What can I tell you? He was from that old line of playing where every note was a note to be counted.” Q: “You were very close, right?” BD: “Yeah.” - Rolling Stone, 3-17 May 2007
“He was a giant, a great, great soul, with all the humanity, all the wit and humor, all the wisdom, the spirituality, the common sense of a man and compassion for people. He inspired love and had the strength of a hundred men. He was like the sun, the flowers and the moon, and we will miss him enormously. The world is a profoundly emptier place without him.” - Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone, January 17, 2002
George Harrison: “Well, I was… my apprenticeship I think was with that kind of music, and I’d met Carl years ago, he’s such a nice, sweet man, very, very genuine person. And I think I just like that music so much I thought, well if I was ever gonna get up and do something again then this thing at least I know how to do this sort of thing.” Q: “It was a very emotional performance for him, it looked like it was emotional for everybody there.” GH: “Yeah, it was nice. Because again, although it wasn’t a charity show — well, it was Carl Aid [chuckles] — but it was… I think, again, most people just did it because they loved Carl Perkins, and that’s it. And so it went a bit beyond the usual thing of posing and, ‘Aren’t I cute, look at my skin shine.’ [chuckles]” - Today Show, April 1986
“I walked in the door [at Friar Park] and there were old Carl Perkins records. And he said, ‘Now Olivia, tell him I didn’t put them on there today.’ His juke box is loaded with old Sun records. […] We started playing some old songs — me, Dave Edmunds, Ringo, my son Greg — and I said [to George], ‘Man, you know them all.’ And I believe it was Dave Edmunds who said, ‘He ought to — he used to call himself you!’ And I said, ‘George, really, did that happen? I’d heard that [Carl Harrison was George’s stage name for the May 1960 tour of Scotland].’ And he said, ‘Shoooo, yes, I certainly did!’ And that’s a very humbling thing for me.” - Carl Perkins, Ticket To Ride: A Celebration Of The Beatles (1989)
“I was in heaven over there [Friar Park] with him. I won’t ever be able to thoroughly explain the feeling to see him so healthy, to see him happy, to see his little boy [Dhani] bring his girlfriend to the house. I told Olivia, ‘Oh, God, girl, you’ve meant so much to his life, you’ve just totaled him out, and it’s just wonderful.’ They’re beautiful people.” - Carl Perkins, 1996 interview, published in Goldmine, November 1998 (x)
