Olivia Arias - Blog Posts

George and Olivia with Bob Marley backstage at the Roxy, 13 July 1975. Photo 1 published in Cash Box magazine; photos by Kim Gottlieb-Walker, and Peter Borsari.

“When Bob heard that George was coming, he got really excited. He said, ‘Ras Beatle!’ I had a flash on my camera and the batteries were dying — they were only together for two minutes and you had to wait 30 seconds to get a charge. It was agonizing. But I got the picture in the end and that’s all that matters.” - Kim Gottlieb-Walker, Hempstead Highgate Express, 16 April 2011

“[George had] not long returned from LA where he’d seen Bob Marley & The Wailers three times at the Roxy — ‘best thing I’ve seen in ten years. Marley reminds me so much of Dylan in the early days, playing guitar as if he’s new to it. And his rhythm, you know, it’s so simple, yet so beautiful. I could watch The Wailers all night.’” - Melody Maker, 6 September 1975

“Cover one of the Beatle songs [‘And I Love Her’]. The thing was we meet and shake hand and say great — them dude they nice. I really like meet them all and sit down and chat with them. They’re bredrens… just love roots. Them guys are roots. Them guys are all right, ya know. There is like a king and queen, ya know — those guys are roots.” - Bob Marley, Rock Lives (1998) (x)

George Harrison, his father Harold, Olivia, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, and the whole Dark Horse Tour band visiting the White House, 13 December 1974. Photos: screenshot © Harrison Family; David Hume Kennerly; Bettmann/Corbis.

They’d been invited when George met Jack Ford backstage in Salt Lake City on 16 November 1974.

Olivia Harrison: “This is in the Oval Office with Billy Preston. President Ford’s son Jack had come to some shows and said: Why don’t you meet my dad? I was in the room, and George was telling Gerry Ford how Muhammad Ali had lifted up ‪the Beatles‬; I think he got two of them under each arm! Somehow they’d got straight into that conversation, then Ford asked him what all the badges he was wearing were and George explained that they were Krishna, Babagi [sic], and the Om sign. Then Ford went to his desk and pulled out a badge that said WIN, which meant Whip Inflation Now. So funny! I remember George wore red handmade Tibetan boots, probably the first hint of any protest about Tibet. A sly political statement.” - Olivia Harrison, Observer Monthly Magazine, June 2009

“We were taken up to into the private apartments, had lunch up there, came down and went into the Oval Office. […] There’s a photo of ‪Billy Preston‬ playing the piano in the White House. He was playing ‘God Bless America’ on the 200th or 2000th Steinway.” - George Harrison, Raga Mala

“According to the briefing paper for this visit, it was the first Presidential meeting with a member of ‪the Beatles‬. President Ford recognized not only ‪George Harrison‬’s musical ability but also his efforts to raise funds for UNICEF and various hospitals throughout the United States. (A2426-17 / National Archives Identifier ‪7839929‬)” (x)

Q: “Were you going down fast [prior to meeting Olivia in 1974]?” George Harrison: “Well, I wasn’t ready to join Alcoholics Anonymous or anything — I don’t think I was that far gone — but I could put back a bottle of brandy occasionally, plus all the other naughty things that fly around. I just went on a binge, went on the road… all that sort of thing, until it got to the point where I had no voice and almost no body at times. Then I met Olivia and it all worked out fine. There’s a song on the new album, ‘Dark Sweet Lady’: ‘You came and helped me through/When I’d let go/You came from out the blue/Never have known what I’d done without you.’ That sums it up.” - Rolling Stone, April 19, 1979

A polaroid of GEORGE HARRISON and OLIVIA ARIAS. Taken in Vancouver on the 3 November 1974. From Olivia’s new book, Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George.