Beatle George Harrison gets Hollywood star

LOS ANGELES (AP)- Hundreds of George Harrison's biggest fans and best friends, including Paul McCartney and Tom Petty, turned out Tuesday to see a posthumous star for the quiet Beatle unveiled during a raucous celebration on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Fellow former Beatle McCartney stood next to Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, as the star was unveiled in front of the landmark Capitol Records building.
"Thank you very much!" he yelled to hundreds of screaming fans wearing Beatles T-shirts and holding signs, albums and flowers to honor Harrison.

The only other surviving member of the band, Ringo Starr, did not attend. But one of Harrison's friends, Monty Python's Eric Idle, said he had recently spoken to Starr.
"He said, 'What about mine?'" Idle said. "I said, 'They don't give drummers stars.'"
Harrison already shared a Walk of Fame star with all of the Beatles, but only he and John Lennon, who was shot to death by a deranged fan in 1980, have their own stars. Harrison, the youngest of the Beatles, died of lung cancer in 2001 at age 58.

"He was a beautiful, mystical man living in a material world," Olivia Harrison said of her late husband. Standing next to her, Dhani Harrison uttered the mantra "Hare Krishna." Incense smoke snaked into the air during the dedication as Petty, sporting dark sunglasses, mingled with such celebrity guests as Jeff Lynne, T-Bone Burnett and Tom Hanks. "He had the most remarkable sense of humor," said Idle, who talked about having a hard time knowing what to say about his friend and fellow Englishman.

After the ceremony, Idle, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, McCartney and his girlfriend, Nancy Shevell, and others attended a luncheon at Capitol Records' spacious Studio A. They, Lynne, Petty, Ed Begley Jr., Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, and others hugged and chatted while sipping champagne and dining on vegan food. Born in Liverpool, England, in 1943, Harrison was 15 when he and fellow schoolmate McCartney joined Lennon in the group that would become the Beatles. The Beatles' lead guitarist, Harrison also wrote several of the group's best songs, from "Taxman," "Here Comes the Sun" and "Within You, Without You" to "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." His love of Eastern music and culture also influenced such classic Beatles recordings as "The White Album" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Harrison launched a successful solo career after the Beatles broke up in 1970, releasing the acclaimed "All Things Must Pass" album that same year and the "The Concert For Bangladesh" in 1971. He went on to record nearly a dozen solo albums and recorded with Petty, Lynne, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison as part of the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys in the 1980s and early 1990s.

He also produced numerous films, including "The Life of Brian" and "Time Bandits."
Capitol/EMI, which sponsored the star, announced Tuesday that a career-spanning collection of Harrison's solo hits, titled "Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison," will be released in June. Martin Scorsese is directing a documentary on Harrison that includes interviews and extensive archival materials.

L.A TIMES
Apr 14 2009
Paul McCartney topped the star-studded turnout Tuesday in Hollywood for the unveiling of a Walk of Fame star for his former Fab Four band mate George Harrison at a ceremony that also drew such celebrity friends and admirers as Tom Hanks, Tom Petty, Eric Idle, Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, T-Bone Burnett and Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and their son, Dhani.

“Hare Krishna” was all Dhani Harrison had to say after alternately touching and humorous tributes from his mother, Idle and Hanks as well as Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge.
“I asked myself, ‘What would George think about a star on Hollywood Boulevard?' ” his close friend and Monty Python alum Idle said. “I thought I heard his voice, and it said, ‘It’s a bunch of old bollocks.’ ”

McCartney wasn’t among the scheduled speakers, and when he hopped up to the microphone after taking part in a round of photo snaps with the assembled guests in front of the freshly minted star, it had been shut off. He simply shouted, “Thank you!” to the hundreds of fans who spilled out into Vine Street in front of the Capitol Records Tower, where Harrison’s star now sits near those of the Beatles and John Lennon. Hanks, prefacing his remarks with the explanation that “I’m representing the Americans,” told the crowd that Harrison’s first guitar had cost the equivalent of 75 cents. “But he desired to make it sing, and to make that guitar weep.”

In conjunction with the star ceremony, Capitol-EMI Records announced that a new compilation of Harrison’s post-Beatles recordings will be released June 16, spanning the different labels he recorded for before his death in 2001. “Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison” will also touch on his Beatles legacy with three of his Fab Four songs, “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes the Sun,” represented in live recordings from the 1971 all-star Concert for Bangladesh charity event he spearheaded. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leron Gubler, who emceed the ceremony, also noted that Martin Scorsese is working on a documentary about Harrison’s life.

At a private reception following the ceremony in Capitol's historic recording Studio A, many of the guests debated how the spiritually minded musician would have responded to the event. Idle noted that this was the second posthumous salute to Harrison in Hollywood he had been invited to speak at, following his 2002 induction into the Hollywood Bowl's Walk of Fame.

Hanks recalled the impact of seeing the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," and his feeling that more than with any other band, each album the group released "was an event." He also spoke of his fondness for the Dave Clark Five, whom he inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, and that he's exploring the possibility of working with Clark on a documentary about the group, whose string of Top 10 hits in 1964 and '65 created a strong rival to the Beatles.

The enthusiasm toward Harrison displayed by the fans and the collected musicians, actors and others made an impression on Burnett. "It's nice to see people are still excited about something," the producer, singer and songwriter said.