The following interview appeared the 1964 magazine The Beatles Are Back.
"I'm the one to blame for George being The Beatle with the longest hair," says Mr. Harold Harrison, father of the lead-guitarist Beatle. "I used to cut it for him when he was little, and I always gave him a really short back and sides. George hated it, and he always said he would never have his hair cut when he grew up. Well, he certainly kept his word, didn't he!"
Since The Beatles became big-time, Louise and Harold, George's mom and dad, get very little privacy. In fact, Mrs. Harrison it like a second mother to some of the hundreds of fans who make a pilgrimage to her home, and she loves it.
"They come from all over the country," she says. "Usually I ask them in for a cup of tea and a biscuit. It's the least I can do-after all. Some come all the way from London or Glasgow.
"Lots of them want a small keepsake of George. They want things like old razer blades that he's used, or a button he's touched. But, unfortunately, I ran out of things like those-things I could give them-a long time ago.
"The fans are really nice. One day, when they had been calling in a constant stream, I couldn't find time to tidy up or make dinner, and my husband was due in at any minute. Just then three girls turned up, and I told them I was sorry but I was far too busy to ask them in. They jumped at the chance to help me and before I could get my breath they were sweeping the carpet, hanging out the wash, and the dinner was cooking while I sat back and relaxed like a queen.
"The fans don't forget me when they go back home, either. Along with George's fan mail, Mr. Harrison and I are constantly getting little gifts of chocolates and things from all the fans who called. And sometimes we're up until two in the morning writing replies to all the lovely letters we get-but we don't mind."
Dad Harrison is probably Liverpool Corporation's most popular driver of school buses. He had a Ford Anglia of his own which George bought him, and tells a funny story about that: "One morning I took the car to the bus depot at five A.M. It was still dark, and it wasn't till I finished work in the afternoon that I noticed it was covered in lipstick-scrawled messages to George. What a laugh that was!"
Whenever he gets the chance, George drives his own car (a Jaguar) through the Mersey tunnel to visit his favorite girl-friend at Ellesmore Port, Cheshire. This lucky girl is his niece, seventeen-month-old Janet and her four-year-old brother Paul are, not surprisingly, great Beatle fans. In fact, young Paul couldn't understand why he couldn't replace Paul McCartney one time when he fell ill!
George's other brother, Pete, twenty-three, might have been a Beatle himself but for one thing-a motor bike.
Explains Pete: "George and I used to play in skiffle groups together-I played a home-made bass-until I discovered motor bikes. After that, I lost my interest in music. It's a pity I changed my mind."
Needless to say, Pete is a devoted Beatles fan-just like everyone else in the very close-nit Harrison family.
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