Olivia Harrison

Author and film producer Olivia Harrison feels sillier being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Conan sits down with Olivia to discuss the life of her husband and legendary Beatles guitarist George Harrison as revealed through his new book The Third Eye: Early Photographs. For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com. Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: (323) 362-2295.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  We know life is busy. That's why saving money should be effortless. With Atlantic Union Bank's Roundup Savings, every time you use your debit card, your purchase rounds up to the nearest dollar and automatically goes into savings. So whether you're grabbing coffee, filling the tank, or picking up groceries, you're saving without even thinking about it. It's just one of the ways Atlantic Union Bank makes managing your money easy. Learn more at atlanticunionbank.com or stop by a branch today. Atlantic Union Bank, any way you bank.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  The holidays start early at Lowe's. Put some presents under the tree early this year with gifts under $25, like the Carhartt Knit Beanie. Then, take it outside with inflatables that turn your yard into a picture-perfect holiday backdrop. Get the 3.5-foot Gingerbread Mickey Inflatable for just $34.98. From gifts that make them smile to outdoor decor that brings joy to the whole neighborhood. The holidays are on now at Lowe's, in-store and online. While supplies last, selection varies by location.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  Hi, my name is Olivia Harrison, and I feel sillier being Conan O'Brien's friend.

• 1:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, I make people silly.

• 1:36Conan O'Brien?

  Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. We're changing things up a little bit here. Normally, this would be a fan episode. I would talk to someone from anywhere in the world who listens to the podcast, and we'd get into it, and it would get weird very quickly. Today's a little different. I'm talking to someone who I know. I've met this woman several times over the years. She's absolutely lovely, and I am thrilled that she agreed to sit down and talk to me, give an interview about a book that she's come out with. And so this is great. So let's get into it. My guest today is an author and film producer who has curated the personal photographs and film stills of her late husband,

• 2:20Conan O'Brien?

  George Harrison, into a new book titled, The Third Eye Early Photographs. It's a gorgeous book. I'm very happy that she's here to talk to us about it today.

• 2:36Conan O'Brien?

  Olivia Harrison, welcome.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  I came here to be silly.

• 2:45Conan O'Brien?

  Is that a good thing? I'm not sure.

• 2:47Speaker 02

  Well, it's kind of good.

• 2:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  There's a lot of squares out there.

• 2:50Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, it's true.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  It is true. It's really hard talking to squares.

• 2:54Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. Every time I look in the mirror, I'm confronted. Olivia, I've had the pleasure of knowing you somewhat for quite a while now. We've been at a bunch of dinner parties together. I love talking to you. You're really funny. We always have a great hang. And so I'm thrilled that you're here, and I love your book. This is a beautiful book.

• 3:20Speaker 02

  Thank you. Thank you so much.

• 3:21Conan O'Brien?

  It means a lot to me to have you here. And I thought we should just start with, before we get into the photographs in this absolutely stunning book, I just wanted to talk a little bit about you and your background, because there were things that I didn't know. I didn't realize that you grew up in Los Angeles in really a Spanish-speaking environment, Mexican-Spanish-speaking environment. Is that, that's correct, yes?

• 3:47Speaker 02

  True.

• 3:47Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 3:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:49Conan O'Brien?

  And so you grew up here, and you don't meet George until, I think you've met in maybe 1972, but you don't marry until 1974. Is that right?

• 3:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, my grandparents came here from Mexico. My parents were born here. I lived over, they lived over near Graham Avenue. And when the horse and carts, they were going to visit their family in horse and carts in Los Angeles.

• 4:16Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 4:16Speaker 02

  And then one day, my father went off to the war. He came back. I'm actually doing a little film about this immigrant family.

• 4:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  And anyway, we moved to-

• 4:28Conan O'Brien?

  He went off, this is World War II?

• 4:30Speaker 02

  World War II.

• 4:30Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 4:31Speaker 02

  He was in Hell on Wheels, Tank Destroyer.

• 4:34Conan O'Brien?

  Wow.

• 4:35Speaker 02

  Never really talked about it too much, you know?

• 4:38Conan O'Brien?

  That generation didn't. They would go off to war, they came back. There was no talking about it. There was no idea of PTSD or anything. People just, I did that, it's over now, we don't talk about it.

• 4:49Speaker 02

  You know, we were in a park. I divert, I divert a lot here.

• 4:52Conan O'Brien?

  That's okay, I like diversions.

• 4:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we were in a park one time, and my dad was there. We took him, he was in his 80s. And there was another older gent sitting on another picnic bench. We were just having a picnic, and they were looking at each other. And finally, they walked over to each other, and they started talking. And they were both in the war at the same time, in Germany, the same time. And these two little old guys said, "Who's your commanding officer?" And I think, if it was Patton, whoever, it was the same commanding officer. These two guys stood up and saluted one another.

• 5:26Conan O'Brien?

  Oh.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  And, you know, nobody's asking them about what they've been through in their lives, what they've seen in their lives, but they knew. Anyway, that was my dad.

• 5:35Conan O'Brien?

  It's like an unspoken bond. If you were in that with someone.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  And then he took us, we went, we moved to a town called Hawthorne.

• 5:42Conan O'Brien?

  Wait, that's where the Beach Boys are from?

• 5:43Speaker 02

  That's, yeah. They were sort of, my girlfriend, Melody, was going out with Dennis.

• 5:49Conan O'Brien?

  Really?

• 5:51Speaker 02

  And so we would go to their house over on, like, we lived on 123rd Place, and they were like on 118th, on the other side of Prairie. And so they had a little setup there with the band setup.

• 6:04Conan O'Brien?

  Is this when they were the Beach Boys?

• 6:06Speaker 02

  So we were in their little basement, surfers stomping, and they were playing surfin'. And somebody said, "This song is going to be on the radio." It's like, "Nah, yeah, it is. It's going to be on the radio." And so, you know, that was Hawthorne High School.

• 6:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  And where I once took George just to show him around the, and this is where I went to high school, because we lived across the street. And we're driving by, and this is the car park. What, you had a car? Like, even if you had a car in England, you couldn't drive it. It's like, we never had a car.

• 6:43Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 6:44Speaker 02

  And anyway, we talked about-

• 6:46Conan O'Brien?

  Like, he's bitter about you having a car.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  No, no, no, he was bitter about, about, you know, University of Please Yourself, California.

• 6:53Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, yes.

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Basically, "What's a sock hop?" Well, it's when you have a dance in the gym and you can't wear your shoes because you might scratch the floor. You know, they've been singing all these lyrics. Sock hop, all, you know? All that jazz.

• 7:06Conan O'Brien?

  That's so funny, because, and he was a Beach Boys fan?

• 7:11Speaker 02

  He was, very much. He had a lot of respect for Brian.

• 7:15Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, when you introduce George to your family, they call him Jorge?

• 7:21Speaker 02

  He called himself Jorge.

• 7:22Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, he called himself Jorge? He was like, "I'm Jorge?"

• 7:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, because he wanted, till the end of his life, that was his, he used to call himself Jorge Arias. Arias is my surname, my maiden name, because he thought it was much cooler, much cooler than George. He goes, "George is a stupid name for a kid.

• 7:43Speaker 02

  Sorry, all Georgies out there. I happen to like it. Gio, it's of the earth. That's the root of that."

• 7:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:50Speaker 02

  So, anyway, you know, he did, because King George, of course, everybody was named George.

• 7:55Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, sure.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  Popular name. And, but he, you know, he said, "My mom and dad," they were pals, were a lot like his family. And our moms were named Louise. They listened to the same music. We used to spend the night over there all the time in Hawthorne in the little room. It was fun, it was great.

• 8:13Conan O'Brien?

  So, this is fascinating to me that George famously was so much, was so open to different kinds of music. Did he get into Mexican music?

• 8:24Speaker 02

  Oh, gosh, yeah. In fact, I did, you know, I used to watch a lot of old Mexican movies. I cut out all the musical numbers, put him on a VHS, you know, way back. And then he just, he'd love, he's, "Ah, that's a good chord change. That's a good, ah, yeah, that's a good one."

• 8:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Did he give it up and join a mariachi band for a few years? He might have.

• 8:44Speaker 02

  I could probably show you a picture of George and I dressed as mariachis. The big hats.

• 8:50Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, that's right. I just love how open he was to just everything, just new experiences, new cultures, new-

• 8:58Speaker 02

  He loved it. I mean, he and my dad were really pals. They were very irreverent.

• 9:03Conan O'Brien?

  And he recorded your dad. Your dad was musical-

• 9:06Speaker 02

  That's right, you knew that.

• 9:06Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I know that he made a recording with your dad, brought him into the studio and helped produce. That's so cool.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  You know, and my dad, they used to record onto vinyl. Somebody, one of their friends, had a pressing or cutting machine. So that was like 1938. My mom said, "And we had to sit there really quiet all Sunday." I said, "Really? No kidding? So did I." And, so, at one point, he said, I said, "Why don't you record my dad? You know, he's getting old." So they went into the studio. And George woke me up about 4:00 in the morning, literally tears in his eyes. He said, "You have to listen to this." And, you know, of course, my dad went to bed early, and he and a neighbor, Joe Brown, who was also a big pop star, Beatles opened for Joe Brown.

• 9:54Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, that's right.

• 9:54Speaker 02

  Anyway, and they'd put a couple strings on there and some little piano. And it was just lovely. And made my dad a CD of his songs.

• 10:05Conan O'Brien?

  Did your dad appreciate that George Harrison is producing him? Or did he just think, "Oh, that's Jorge, you know? He did a pretty good job. If I could only get George Harrison." "Yeah, if I could only get George Harrison to this Jorge idiot."

• 10:18Speaker 02

  They just never made a, my dad never made a, like, a big deal about it.

• 10:21Conan O'Brien?

  Cool, yeah. I'm curious about one thing, which is, you meet George, you guys fall in love, you get married, and then suddenly, you're into, you're in that world, and you made a very conscious choice to not put yourself forward. Because once you marry a Beatle, it's a whole thing. And so you had to negotiate that, which I imagine is not easy.

• 10:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, you know, funnily enough, I met George at A&M Records. And, but the first time we ever went anywhere together was here on Larchmont Boulevard.

• 10:58Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, really?

• 10:59Speaker 02

  There's a hall here somewhere. And I was going to listen to a talk on meditation. And, and I just met him about a week before, and he was like, "Can I come with you?" I was like, "Oh, no."

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course. And I called my sister who was going and said, listen, I'm coming to this thing. It was a film we were gonna watch. I'm coming to this thing, save two seats and I'm not coming in till the lights go off. And I'm gonna leave just before it's over. Cause I had a lot of friends there and I just, you know.

• 11:33Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 11:33Speaker 02

  But I felt for him, cause he said, can I go with you? And I thought, sure, come on.

• 11:38Conan O'Brien?

  Sure.

• 11:38Speaker 02

  What, you haven't got anything else to do?

• 11:41Conan O'Brien?

  Apparently, no, he didn't.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Apparently not.

• 11:43Conan O'Brien?

  I suspect he wanted to be with you though. So you are suddenly in that world and, you know, I've had the great pleasure. Your son Danny invited me over to Friar Park, Crackerbox Palace, and gave me the full tour. And I was over the moon. I was electrified. I'm a big guitar geek. He let me hold all the guitars. And I'm like, oh my God, it's the Gretsch Duo Jet. Oh, it's the Rickenbacker 12 string. It's the Rosewood Telecast. I'm just, oh my God, I was.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  The Tele's nice, isn't it?

• 12:15Conan O'Brien?

  It's heavy.

• 12:16Speaker 02

  It's really heavy.

• 12:17Conan O'Brien?

  That Rosewood Telecaster is really heavy.

• 12:18Speaker 02

  They only made, you know, they made one for Jimi Hendrix and one for George.

• 12:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 12:22Speaker 02

  And then he gave that one to Delaney Bramlett.

• 12:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And did you guys get it back?

• 12:26Speaker 02

  I, it came back, yes.

• 12:27Conan O'Brien?

  Good, okay, cause I don't like it.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  George, I neither, that's why.

• 12:32Conan O'Brien?

  It's gotta stay in your family. Tell him to, you know, so you should've said at the time, stop giving stuff away. Um, give it to Conan. Who's Conan? You'll see.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  He gave his Oscar away to Michael Palin and I was.

• 12:44Conan O'Brien?

  He gave his Oscar away?

• 12:45Speaker 02

  And he, he scratched Michael's name on it because he loved Michael Palin.

• 12:49Conan O'Brien?

  Of course, yeah.

• 12:50Speaker 02

  And so he just said, here, why don't you have it? You really deserve this. And he scratched his name in it and Michael took it home. And after George died, he gave it back, which was very sweet.

• 12:58Conan O'Brien?

  It sounds to me like.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  He gave away his Beatle boots to Slim Jim Phantom or the Stray Cats.

• 13:02Conan O'Brien?

  Sure, Stray Cats, yeah.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  And, uh, and, uh, and the big fuzzy coat on the rooftop of Let It Be to a nanny who was cold. Like, you can borrow the jacket.

• 13:12Conan O'Brien?

  I know that, I know that. I'm getting the impression that what we needed to do was somehow get over there and hang around George.

• 13:20Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 13:20Conan O'Brien?

  When he's giving stuff away.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:22Conan O'Brien?

  Just pretend you're gardening. Yeah. I don't remember hiring you.

• 13:28Speaker 04

  I sure am cold and boy, don't I have a guitar.

• 13:30Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 13:34Conan O'Brien?

  Did you ever see George give things away and you're like, don't give that away?

• 13:37Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 13:42Conan O'Brien?

  You like Olivia's tiara? Have it.

• 13:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:45Conan O'Brien?

  It's mine. So I, I just got this window into what an insanely incredible life you and Danny and George had. Danny told me one story, we're in the kitchen and, uh, you can, in the kitchen, you can look at those windows. I'm explaining to you what you can see and see all of just Friar Park. It's beautiful. You can step right through the doors and you can see, oh, there's where they shot the cover for All Things Must Pass. I mean, I'm just, foam is coming out my ears and not in a good way. And, um, settle down. Why would it be in a good way? I had to put out a fire. Yeah, during the fires.

• 14:24Speaker 04

  I'm gonna land a plane.

• 14:27Conan O'Brien?

  So, and Danny said, yeah, he said, he remembered during the, um, Traveling Wilbury days, he was headed off to school and all the Traveling Wilburys are sitting around a table. I think it was the second album and they're all sitting around a table and they're having breakfast. And Danny's headed off to school and he said, they're all sitting there. And he said that Bob Dylan had like a, um, you know, like a sweatshirt on with a hood, like a hoodie. And the hood was up and he was eating cereal out of a bowl. And, um, Danny's like got his school uniform on to go off and learn, you know, whatever calculus. And he's headed out with his book bag and they start, George says, well, you know, where are you going? He said, I'm going to school, Dad. And he said, don't go to school.

• 15:12Conan O'Brien?

  I never really went to school and I turned out all right. And then he said, Bob Dylan was like, yeah, don't go to school, man. And it was this bizarro world, this bizarro world where a bunch of grownups are telling a kid who's trying to learn, a bunch of rock stars and, and you know, Tom Petty's like, yeah, man, you don't need school.

• 15:30Speaker 04

  One of them dressed like the Unabomber.

• 15:32Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, exactly. Unabomber eating Raisin Bran. But I just thought, what a funny household to be in.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  I used to say, thanks a lot, guys.

• 15:40Conan O'Brien?

  Thanks a lot, yeah.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  Danny was having a piano lesson, cause, cause we, early on, cause I thought, just don't put the guitar at him. George never showed him guitar, asked him if he wanted to play or anything.

• 15:51Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 15:52Speaker 02

  There's a little piano thing. Eric Clapton was coming over to play for George's studio and he walks in, he goes, oh, man, Danny, I feel sorry for you. I hated my piano teacher. I'm like, excuse me. He's not you. He's not going to be you.

• 16:08Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:09Speaker 02

  In life.

• 16:10Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 16:11Speaker 02

  Thanks a lot.

• 16:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:12Speaker 02

  He just runs up the stairs and Danny looks, it didn't last long, much longer after that.

• 16:17Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  The piano thing.

• 16:19Conan O'Brien?

  Man, it's just so funny, like, yeah, it's, everything is backwards. What are you practicing piano for? Hey, and don't go to school.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  You know, it's so, I know when, when Danny finished his O levels, he was saying, okay, well, that's enough now. And he goes, no, Dad, I have to do my A levels. And then he does his A levels. He goes, okay, well, good, that's enough now. And he goes, no, Dad, I gotta go to university. It was like, oh, what's the point of having a boy if he's always in school, you know?

• 16:48Speaker 02

  You know, that python line, rather have a box of fish than a son like that, you know?

• 16:59Speaker 05

  Is your heating and cooling system getting old? Did it struggle through the summer? Don't wait for it to leave you out in the cold this winter. Call James River Air and ask how you can get a new system for as little as $99 a month. That's just $3 a day. That's less than your coffee house coffee. Now through October, get up to $3,000 off with rebates and special financing. Call or visit jamesriverair.com and get back to comfort.

• 17:28Speaker 06

  Hey Richmond, Mark Smith, Midas Richmond, 2026. We have been doing what we do for 29 years. Total car care, total community care. In 2026, we are donating $365,000. A thousand dollars a day for the nonprofits we've historically supported. Gooch and Care, Shalom Farms, St. Joseph's Villa, Ask, the Colonial Heights Food Pantry, everybody we've helped over the years. These are important things making a big impact in our society right now. Total car care, total community care, that is Midas of Richmond.

• 17:59Speaker 04

  Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available.

• 18:26Conan O'Brien?

  Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.

• 18:35Conan O'Brien?

  Well, of course, uh, George, fantastic sense of humor. Oh, you know, and it's, uh, I mean, we're gonna get to it, but it's, it's all throughout the book, all throughout the photographs, his sense of humor and his playfulness. And that was a hallmark of the Beatles is they were very funny, but George's sense of humor was very specific, really funny and subversive. And because he was the quiet one, you expected it less, which made it all the more surprising and wonderful. And I'm sure that sense of humor was around the house all the time.

• 19:06Speaker 02

  Oh, all the time. I mean, he used to jukebox to get Danny out of bed. He used to play Eagle Call Rag by Cab Calloway. I don't know if you've ever heard it.

• 19:15Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 19:15Speaker 02

  But it's pretty loud.

• 19:16Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 19:17Speaker 02

  And that would just.

• 19:17Conan O'Brien?

  And it was on the jukebox that's in that big hallway? I've seen that jukebox, yeah.

• 19:21Speaker 02

  But he was.

• 19:21Conan O'Brien?

  I was waiting for someone to give it to me.

• 19:25Conan O'Brien?

  Hint, hint, Olivia.

• 19:26Speaker 02

  It may turn up.

• 19:27Conan O'Brien?

  If you can get it out of here, yeah.

• 19:29Speaker 02

  And he was, you know, pretty reverent and, you know, there were, there were occasions when my hand would just go over his mouth.

• 19:36Conan O'Brien?

  You would cover his mouth?

• 19:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, we'd be like out somewhere and he'd go, ah.

• 19:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 19:41Speaker 02

  When I do that, I know what you're gonna say. I just know what you're gonna say.

• 19:45Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 19:45Speaker 02

  You know, he wasn't mean.

• 19:47Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  He was brutal in, in, you know, in a different, different way.

• 19:51Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, I know.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  Cause he didn't like, you know what?

• 19:53Conan O'Brien?

  I'm familiar with this craft.

• 19:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, you, you.

• 19:55Conan O'Brien?

  I'm not mean, but, uh, yeah. If you can be fun, you can be brutal in a funny way, yeah.

• 20:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, he didn't like jive, you know?

• 20:04Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 20:04Speaker 02

  He didn't like BS. He just liked, and there were a lot of things he didn't wanna, you know, sometimes we'd be having a conversation, a gang of us or something.

• 20:15Speaker 02

  And come in the room, he goes, oh, you're not still talking about that, are you?

• 20:18Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  I'd be like, oh, okay.

• 20:20Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 20:21Speaker 02

  Or I do not wish to know that.

• 20:22Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 20:23Speaker 02

  That was another big one because there were things he didn't want in his head.

• 20:26Conan O'Brien?

  It was negative?

• 20:28Speaker 02

  No, it's like, okay, you've had enough input by the time you're 22 or four. Can you imagine that being, you know, George Saunders writes about it in the, in his piece here.

• 20:38Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, beautiful piece.

• 20:40Speaker 02

  Beautiful, you know, like who else, very few people had that experience of being in the center of that kind of attention. It was a kind of a.

• 20:48Conan O'Brien?

  And he was by far the youngest. I mean, on those early, those early, you know, recordings and when they're rising to fame, he's like 19. He's, you know, he's, he's a, he's a, he's a kid.

• 21:00Speaker 02

  Like, you know, he always said, yes, I think when they were like in their, you know, he was saying, yes, I'm still eight months younger than Paul.

• 21:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 21:09Speaker 02

  He was the young one.

• 21:10Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:11Speaker 02

  He never could.

• 21:13Conan O'Brien?

  And Paul never let him forget it, apparently, that you're the kid.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  It was very sweet. They really were tight.

• 21:19Conan O'Brien?

  The, um, you know, I wanna show some of these photos, uh, and, and through the photos, I think we're gonna get to other stories, but they really are remarkable documents. First of all, George gets this, uh, all the Beatles get these Pentax cameras, I think, in around 1963.

• 21:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:38Conan O'Brien?

  And in so many photos of the Beatles, you see them with their cameras taking pictures. Um, George has a great eye. He really does have a great eye. And, um, what I love about a lot of these photos is yes, we're gonna see some photos of the other Beatles, but he took so many photos of just what he was experiencing. People who were just there in the eye of that hurricane, some of them who don't even know who the Beatles are. If they're in India or they're in some foreign country. It's really fascinating. Let's take a look. I think we can start it off. This is a picture that George took of you, which I love this photo.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  Should we mention really quickly too, that you can go to our YouTube page and see all these photos on the YouTube?

• 22:18Speaker 02

  Oh, great.

• 22:19Speaker 04

  Episode of this.

• 22:20Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I mean, some people don't love just hearing a photo described. It's my favorite way to experience a photo is to have it talked about on a podcast, but not seeing it.

• 22:29Speaker 04

  There's a lot of pressure, your job to do justice to these photos.

• 22:32Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, exactly, with words. No, go on the YouTube page and, and, and check out these photos because they really are extraordinary. This is a gorgeous photo.

• 22:40Speaker 02

  Thank you. It was not my idea to put that in there. It was the George, a photo that George took, but I thought, okay, what the heck?

• 22:47Conan O'Brien?

  Well, it's a beautiful photo.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:49Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's, it's really gorgeous.

• 22:51Speaker 02

  We were very proud of that mandala because we bought that woven piece, which was just on a market stall in India somewhere, but we brought it home, all the way home. And we had a mosaic made out of it. It's always, and it's still hanging there in the.

• 23:04Speaker 04

  So for people who are driving, just give it a quick description if you can.

• 23:08Conan O'Brien?

  I want you to do it.

• 23:09Speaker 04

  You want me to do it?

• 23:10Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Beautiful picture of you, Olivia, and then above you is something, was this purchased in India?

• 23:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, just, you know, in a, in a crafts fair, just a woven mandala.

• 23:22Conan O'Brien?

  It's a big woven piece.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  And it was actually pink.

• 23:26Conan O'Brien?

  And a mandala is, what is a mandala?

• 23:29Speaker 02

  It's a tool. Each pattern represents something different.

• 23:32Conan O'Brien?

  Beautiful.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. You see the ones with man with the triangle and the man sitting in lotus position there. And they're Vedic as opposed to Buddhist or, or Hindu. I think they're sort of within those belief.

• 23:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's a, it is a complex geometric design that translates from Sanskrit as circle and represents the universe, wholeness, and the spiritual journey to enlightenment.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  Thank you very much.

• 23:57Conan O'Brien?

  I just think it's, I just think it's a beautiful photograph.

• 23:59Speaker 04

  It is.

• 24:00Speaker 02

  That's what I wanted to say, but I didn't want to screw it up. So there you go.

• 24:03Conan O'Brien?

  Let's move on. Let's see what else. Now this fascinates me. Very few people know about this. I mean, Beatles fans, Beatles freaks like me know about it, but most of the Beatles had never been to the United States when they came to do the Sullivan Show in February of 1964, except one. George Harrison had a sister who was living in.

• 24:23Speaker 02

  Benton, Benton, Illinois.

• 24:24Conan O'Brien?

  Benton, Illinois, and he went and visited her like six months before Beatlemania hits the United States. And he walked around, now Beatlemania is huge in Europe. It's spread to, it's started in England, it's spread, it's a big deal. And you see, he's got like his Beatle suit on. But no one knows what a Beatle is in the United States. So he goes to Bentonville, Illinois, hangs out with his sister.

• 24:55Conan O'Brien?

  Gets up on stage with like a local band and plays with them and they say, hey, he's pretty good. He has a stopover in New York where he walks around and there are all these amazing photographs that, you know, George had people take with his camera of him. And no one knows who he is. He's just some kid with a funny haircut in a Beatle suit, but people are just like, who's that? And whatever, they're ignoring him.

• 25:18Speaker 04

  This is a gorgeous photo though, because it's.

• 25:19Speaker 02

  It's actually, yeah, it's a screen grab.

• 25:21Conan O'Brien?

  A screen grab?

• 25:23Speaker 02

  It's a screen grab from, we, we also did screen grabs from his eight mil footage. And he was with his brother. They went to visit the Empire State Building and.

• 25:33Speaker 04

  So this is from a, from a film shoot.

• 25:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 25:37Speaker 02

  But George did have a camera, whether it be a DV camera, video camera, VHS, Sony Matic, you know, he had every iteration.

• 25:45Conan O'Brien?

  He was recording everything all the time. That's, and in the, in the Scorsese, the beautiful Scorsese documentary, there's so much amazing footage and it was because George was shooting things all the time. He had so much, he was shooting a documentary about himself unknowingly.

• 26:02Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, I know one, you know, sometimes he'd set the camera up, just walk through a shot like that. And he goes, this is going to be a documentary about somebody who's not in it. It's going to be the first one about someone who's not actually in it. I said, well, I'll film you. He goes, no, that's okay. And then, you know, didn't have faith in my skills. But anyway, he just set up a tripod and goes sit in the limb of a tree.

• 26:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And I want to show this one because George famously loved cars. He really appreciated cars. So the first thing he does when he starts making some money is he starts getting these cars that he could never have. And this is maybe one of the reasons he was so bitter about you having, you know, a car when you're so young is he couldn't have that, but then he had money. And you can see he just, there are so many beautiful photographs. This is an E-type Jaguar. It's absolutely stunning. And I think this must be maybe 1964, maybe 65, but it's, it's, you can tell in these photographs how much he loved cars.

• 27:04Speaker 02

  We really did.

• 27:05Conan O'Brien?

  And how proud he was to be able to own one of these cars.

• 27:08Speaker 02

  And he, he knew a lot about cars too. You know, Gordon Murray, who designed the McLaren F1 car for Senna, by the way, as well as, you know, road car. They were, they were best friends. So they, there was a lot of talk about, you know, weight to power ratio and, and, you know.

• 27:26Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  Weight of the knobs of the CD players and things like that.

• 27:30Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, those are conversations I've never had.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 27:33Speaker 04

  We have some power ratio conversations here.

• 27:36Conan O'Brien?

  Exactly. Yeah, we do. Yeah.

• 27:39Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, this is, now George may have invented the selfie long before the selfie existed because he takes, first of all, he discovers the fisheye lens, which he loved. He loved a fisheye lens and they talk, you talk about it in the book. He has a quote that he likes how it, it distorts the world, but actually shows it as it probably is.

• 27:59Speaker 02

  As it feels.

• 28:00Conan O'Brien?

  As it feels.

• 28:00Speaker 02

  I love photographs because you, you can take, you could show how it feels as opposed to how it is.

• 28:06Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 28:07Speaker 02

  And, and distorting the reality.

• 28:10Speaker 04

  It feels like Liam Gallagher was.

• 28:11Conan O'Brien?

  I was born from this photo. Yes. No, no, I was going to say, I looked at this photo and I said, he's auditioning for Oasis.

• 28:21Conan O'Brien?

  Thirty years before Oasis.

• 28:22Speaker 02

  That thing on the side looks like a sideways keyboard or something.

• 28:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's very, but he, there's a lot of selfies in here and the, the, the cover's a selfie, George shooting into a mirror.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  He walked, you know, when he was a kid, he said, oh, I used to roam around the parks in Liverpool and I used to build forts out in the fields with Bracken. And I said, who would you, who would you go with? He said, nobody, just on my own. It's just me. And he, you can see that with the camera. He's walking around just, and that's like, oh, now I can put myself in the picture. I've got a fisheye and a red filter.

• 28:55Conan O'Brien?

  And this is another thing is he's, this house, it's a famous house. That he had, it was, I think it's his first place that he bought.

• 29:04Speaker 02

  In Esher.

• 29:05Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And he's, you can tell he's, he's around his house. He's very proud of his house and he's positioning the camera. This is behind some window slats and then he's in the background, but.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  That's pretty cool, actually.

• 29:18Conan O'Brien?

  It's really cool.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  That was the third eye thing. I love this.

• 29:21Conan O'Brien?

  This makes me happy, this photo. The Beatles, before they go to New, to America, the last thing they do is they play in Paris. And I believe this is in Paris and George just was, rather than yes, there's a lot of photos of, oh, there's John, there's Paul. But there are great photos of him just observing people. And this is, you know, some guy, he's a worker, he's on the street.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're on the Eiffel Tower. They're at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Their work is probably maintenance man. But, you know, I think what it reflects is George was joyful. He was laughing. If George was scornful or making fun of him, he wouldn't be smiling like that.

• 30:03Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:04Speaker 02

  There's this sort of mirrored.

• 30:06Conan O'Brien?

  But also that guy doesn't know who the Beatles are, may not care. And that's the, I think that would probably really appeal to George, that this is a real human being and this is a real human interaction. It's not just fans going, oh my God.

• 30:18Speaker 04

  It looked like something happened because the guy in the back is laughing.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  He's laughing too.

• 30:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. I love this photo. It's something I've noticed sometimes in a lot of John photos is people think, oh, they're just euphoric the whole time. It was a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure and anxiety to being a Beatle at this time. And there's a lot of responsibility. And there's a bunch of photos where the other guys, because it's George taking the photos, they're not trying to smile and, and put on a happy face. You can see that they're maybe a little bit overwhelmed. They're anxious. They're tired. And, you know, they've, they've, they're in the midst of conquering the world and that's not always the easiest thing to do.

• 31:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, which they did not set out to do.

• 31:02Conan O'Brien?

  No, no. They set out to just, oh, this is a fun job. And hey, we get to play the cavern club and isn't this fun? And then one thing led to another. But no one could have foreseen what they were headed for. I also love this one, again, on their way to the Sullivan Show, flying from London to New York, February 1964. And just, again, George can get these photographs because.

• 31:28Conan O'Brien?

  Um, he's not a PR person. He's just one of the guys. And so you can just see John has what looks like a spoon in his mouth. He's chewing it and probably thinking over, how is this gonna go? Are we gonna bomb in America? Which was a possibility, a distinct possibility.

• 31:43Speaker 02

  They always said they weren't going to go unless they had a number one record.

• 31:46Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 31:47Speaker 02

  Then they would go.

• 31:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, that's my condition many times before I go someplace. That's why I never go anywhere.

• 31:53Speaker 02

  Because the English, the English musicians, see, they never made it over there.

• 31:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, no, no.

• 31:59Speaker 02

  They thought, we're not going, you know.

• 32:00Conan O'Brien?

  There are interviews.

• 32:01Speaker 02

  Cliff didn't make it, no, you know.

• 32:03Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, Cliff Richard's didn't make it. There are many interviews with them in the fall of sixty-three where people are saying, hey, late fall, you know, in Britain, you're going over to America. No British act has ever made it there. And they, they didn't know it was gonna happen. They were pleasantly surprised when it all went so well.

• 32:21Speaker 02

  You know, when I first went to England, I thought like some of the pop stars there, you know, they're very sweet and stuff. We had Elvis and Little Richard and Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. Come on, you know. So, you know, Cliff was like, uh, we're gonna go on a summer holiday. I love him, he's great, he's still around, he's a legend, he's, you know.

• 32:44Conan O'Brien?

  But you just put him down.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  I did because, look.

• 32:48Conan O'Brien?

  No, but it's true.

• 32:49Speaker 02

  We had the coasters.

• 32:51Conan O'Brien?

  Yes.

• 32:51Speaker 02

  We had music that was just beyond, you know, that was, you know, you look, well, we look, I look back at it and just think this was, everything was new, everything was. And they brought it back to America. They brought our music back to America.

• 33:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yes.

• 33:07Speaker 02

  And showed us the value, especially of black music.

• 33:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  And that's for real.

• 33:13Conan O'Brien?

  But I think that was, you know, people now tend to look at history and think, oh, it was all inevitable. But it wasn't at the time. It was a very unsure thing. These guys going over there, playing this music, um, they're from Liverpool. People in, in, in England, people are looking down on Liverpool. It's a port city, it's up north. What is this, their hair? Okay, it's working, but maybe it's a fad in Europe and they're going to the United States to be on The Sullivan Show. Um, yeah, the, the, the odds on bet would be this is not gonna work. Well, I think this is, uh, they're in Miami, I believe.

• 33:47Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 33:47Conan O'Brien?

  And, uh, they're sitting around and they're just having what looks like a very, I mean, they're, it all looks so innocent now. This is the biggest phenomenon, pop phenomenon in the world. And they're having Cokes.

• 33:59Speaker 02

  Cokes, big deal of, you know, Coca-Cola, Hamburger, Brian, Judy Martin, Cynthia, John, Paul, and I think Robert Freeman, the photographer.

• 34:08Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, they're just sitting around having, uh, I like this, uh, again.

• 34:14Conan O'Brien?

  George took this photo of Paul eating a banana, uh, and, uh, pulling a face, as they would say in Liverpool. Um, and again, they're just having fun and enjoying themselves. And, uh, this is their moment to put their guard down because it's George with the camera.

• 34:29Speaker 02

  But you know, Paul did a beautiful book, uh, last year, I think, or a year before. And they're all in the same room, completely different point of view. He's pushed that shutter button, different time, different light. And, uh, so you might think, well, the same pictures, they're all in the same plane, they're all in the same room, but they're, they're completely different. But they're disarmed with one another. They're not at all conscious, they're so close, they've been locked in a room, they've been, they used to share rooms. So what I love about it is that this, they're not telling, they're not making faces like, yeah, bugger off or go away or something. You know, they're just there for each other, they're just there, they're, they're, you know, they just seem to be, they're so tight.

• 35:14Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah, I love these weird moments. Here they are in a car and driving through, and maybe this is Australia.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  This is Australia.

• 35:22Conan O'Brien?

  Is it Australia and they're in an open, uh, sixties, you know, Lincoln car and they're driving along. But again, how weird to be those guys in that moment. And there's no crowds around at all, it's just them in the middle, seemingly they're just driving through the outback in their suits, going to the next thing. And what a weird moment.

• 35:42Speaker 02

  Oh, I love this picture. How chic.

• 35:45Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's a great photo.

• 35:46Speaker 02

  Don't they just look?

• 35:47Conan O'Brien?

  Paul with his outspread fingers in the background and, yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 35:51Speaker 04

  Almost pulling the Vulcan.

• 35:52Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, he's doing, he's about to give the Vulcan, uh,

• 35:55Speaker 04

  The mind.

• 35:56Conan O'Brien?

  Live long and prosper.

• 35:57Speaker 07

  It looks like an editorial, like GQ shot.

• 36:00Speaker 02

  It is, and look at, they're so really chic.

• 36:03Conan O'Brien?

  I know, look at John, he looks like a secret agent back there. Yeah, it's the coolest time for fashion. Now, this is George selfie, fisheye lens, and of course, he's at the Taj Mahal. And, uh, his life's changing because he's being introduced to, uh, the culture, the music, the spirit of India. And of course, that's gonna change him, it's gonna change the Beatles, it's going to change, uh, people's idea of what pop music can be. And all because George is curious and open and wants to explore.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  You know, when I went to work for the record label, George's, which Danny's running now, Dark Horse, has amazing artists and catalogs, um, I knew that job was coming up. And I was leaving town, I just thought, I'm getting out of L.A., had enough here.

• 36:51Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 36:52Speaker 02

  And I saw all these, I never said, told this before, all these like really cool girls going to interview for that job. And I thought, no.

• 36:59Conan O'Brien?

  Which job specifically to work with George?

• 37:01Speaker 02

  For Dark Horse, to work with George. And I'm like, not doing it, not going over there, not putting myself into that thing. And then I got a call from his manager after a few days saying, could you come over and talk to me? And I said, yeah, sure. And he said, we'd like you to come and work for Dark Horse. I never met this guy before.

• 37:17Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 37:17Speaker 02

  And, uh, and I'm sure it was because, and I thought, isn't that funny? Isn't that funny? And, and, uh, I guess because I was the yoga girl on, on the lot. And a meditator and a vegetarian. I'm sure somebody found that out, speaking of India, because George was then really getting into, especially in the seventy-three.

• 37:40Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 37:41Speaker 02

  He'd been to India, excuse me, a couple of times by then. Of course, he'd already done that in sixties with Maharishi. But he was really pursuing this, this journey. And so we had that in common and that was, uh, what got us through the whole deal.

• 37:57Conan O'Brien?

  One of the things I'm curious about overall is a lot of these photographs, six, or like sixty-three to sixty-nine in this book, and I'm a little curious, you see the same George, because you don't meet him till nineteen seventy-four. When you see these photographs of him a bunch of years before you even met him in this different life, do you, do you see the same George or did you see that he had changed?

• 38:20Speaker 02

  That's interesting. Uh, I like seeing these ones before I met him. It just allows me to be a little clearer about, you know, I'm not so emotionally attached to these photographs. I love them and I can see, like, you know, the early photographs with, with the Beatles, it's like, nothing really bad has happened yet. You know, when you're young in life and everything's good and you haven't lost, you know, people, close friends, tragedies, things happening. It's like there's, there's a part of life where you're young and everything is like, ah, you know, you're invincible.

• 38:54Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 38:54Speaker 02

  And that's what's so, that's what I love about seeing him then, because we went through some stuff.

• 38:59Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 39:00Speaker 02

  You know, things got dark and, uh, uh, it's just the way, you know, life, life is. But that's what I love about watching them, just like, oh, you wanna protect your kids. You know, you don't want anything ever bad happen to them, you don't want them to see anything bad and you can't do it. You know, you, you, as a parent, you, you can't protect your children. And so I look at this and I just think, this is a beautiful capsule of those times. That's how I feel about when, when I look at them.

• 39:31Conan O'Brien?

  What really comes through, because there's a, a bunch of photographs in the book of Friar Park, how much of a sanctuary that was for him, for you, for Danny. It, it came out a little bit, I think, in the, uh, in the Scorsese documentary, but, you know, someone suggesting, maybe it was Danny suggested, hey, let's, let's go into town, let's go into London. And he was like, it's insane out there. His experience was, why would we leave these beautiful grounds? Why don't we just stay here? Because that world is insane, which was of course, his experience of that world.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  You know, he wasn't, yeah, he says, you know, Friar Park's the only place I can, I feel sane or I can breathe, whatever, one of the quotes in here. And then also in that documentary, he says, you know, I feel fine when I'm in my garden, but when I go out the gates, it's like I'm on the wrong planet.

• 40:20Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  And, uh, but having said that, he did get around, you know, he was a, he was, he used to go to Australia a lot, go to the Grand Prix's, he used to, he used to get out and about. But, uh, when he was a kid and he played in the parks in Liverpool, he said to me, when he came to Friar Park, it looked, it felt familiar to him. And when I went to this particular park, Calderstone's Park in Liverpool, I thought, yeah, I get it. This is where he played. And they had a rock garden and they had a little pond and they had a rockery. I thought, that's why it's familiar to him. But they used to close the gates at like five o'clock, the parky would close the gates. And he, he told his dad, one day, I'm gonna have my own park.

• 41:01Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 41:02Speaker 02

  And, and, and Friar Park was a mess, it was derelict.

• 41:06Conan O'Brien?

  There are photos in here of them, uh, doing all the reconstruction, the, uh, Friar Park was really crumbling, this is beautiful.

• 41:15Speaker 02

  It was, it was going to be demolished, actually.

• 41:17Conan O'Brien?

  It was gonna be demolished and George buys it in, is this seventy, seventy-one?

• 41:21Speaker 02

  Nineteen seventy.

• 41:22Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, he buys it and then does this massive, uh, reconstruction project on it. And one of the things my mom always used to say about me was, you're house proud. Meaning, uh, you know, when I first made some money, the first thing I bought, uh, when I could, like three years into my late night show, was a small house in, you know, Connecticut, on this hilltop in the farm country. And it's this weird little octagonal house from the eighteen sixties. And I, I bought this thing and in the thirty-three years or something that I've had it, all I do is walk around and take pictures of it from different angles. And my mother said to me once, yeah, you're house proud, meaning I'm just so proud of my house. And so what I could connect to in this book was George walking around Friar Park

• 42:07Conan O'Brien?

  and taking so many pictures from so many angles of the same house, but in slightly different light, this angle, that angle, all the care and the loving, you know, bringing trees in, rebuilding the irrigation system, fixing things that it was, um, like I looked at that and I thought, oh, I know what this is, I know what this is.

• 42:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it gave him somewhere to put his energy. I mean, he was very creative too, and, and we used to say it was amateur hour because we didn't have. You know, architects and gardeners and landscape, you know, ultimately, we did. I had people helping, but we just used to go plant things anywhere. And it's amazing now that garden is so beautiful. And I think, did you know, you know, did, did, you know, he was a visionary.

• 42:56Conan O'Brien?

  Mm hmm.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  And he had respect for architecture. That was probably one of the only things in school was art class, you know? And he drew columns, Corinthian columns and buttresses and arches. And he was really interested. So Freire Park really fascinated him. And there's a lot of symbology there, too. The man who owned it was quite eccentric.

• 43:23Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, a real eccentric. Yeah, a real eccentric. It's Frankie.

• 43:28Speaker 02

  Frank Crisp.

• 43:29Conan O'Brien?

  Frank Crisp. Yeah, he has a song to him, Frankie Crisp. But yeah, quite a strange, unusual man built this, what some would call a folly.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, there are many follies there. I mean, it's really extraordinary. He built the Blue Grottoes Capri under the gardens.

• 43:47Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 43:48Speaker 02

  And a Matterhorn, a rockery.

• 43:51Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, walk around. Danny showed us, there's an area of it where there's giant fake Matterhorn mountains. And there's a story that Walt Disney either visited, I don't know if it's, if it's apocryphal, but Walt Disney either saw it or heard about it, but that it does look like, there's a part of it that looks like a Disneyland, mountain skate before Disneyland.

• 44:12Speaker 02

  No, for sure. Walt was in Henley-on-Tems. I know that somebody was reading in the archives.

• 44:18Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 44:18Speaker 02

  And they told me, by the way, he was in Henley-on-Tems.

• 44:22Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 44:22Speaker 02

  But he did.

• 44:23Conan O'Brien?

  So he was in the neighborhood.

• 44:24Speaker 02

  It was a boat ride, like the Small World. It was a boat ride through these things. He had, he had gnomes and flamingos and stone things carved.

• 44:34Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  Little vignettes going through. And then he brought 20,000 tons of boulders from Yorkshire by train, then horse and cart to Henley.

• 44:44Conan O'Brien?

  This is Frank Crisp.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Frank Crisp and built that rockery so he could display his alpine plants because the Matterhorn had just been climbed in 1875. I am a tour guide.

• 44:54Conan O'Brien?

  Wow. You're a docent at the.

• 44:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. So 1875, Matterhorn was climbed.

• 44:59Speaker 04

  This is my spirit animal, this guy.

• 45:01Speaker 02

  He had, he had the largest alpine collection in Great Britain. And so he built this, he must have been Switzerland. He built this Matterhorn. When you go on the, on the, what do you call it? The roller coaster and the Matterhorn, you know how you walk up the side like that? You go into the caves? Exactly. There are ice caves at Grindelwald or underneath the Matterhorn. And that's where you would go in if you were in Disneyland. And, you know, I, I used to bug Bob Iger. He used to run because I go, I know he was there. I know Walt was there.

• 45:34Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 45:35Speaker 02

  You know?

• 45:36Conan O'Brien?

  I think you're entitled to a piece.

• 45:38Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 45:39Conan O'Brien?

  Of Disneyland.

• 45:39Speaker 04

  I think we all are.

• 45:40Conan O'Brien?

  I do. And I'm saying this as someone who.

• 45:42Speaker 04

  Yes, yes.

• 45:44Conan O'Brien?

  We'll get there in a second.

• 45:45Speaker 04

  We're here, we're helping her.

• 45:46Conan O'Brien?

  Olivia, what I'm telling you is I will represent you and then I will get a piece. I know I haven't been to law school, but I think I'm the one to do this.

• 45:58Speaker 05

  Is your heating and cooling system getting old? Did it struggle through the summer? Don't wait for it to leave you out in the cold this winter. Call James River Air and ask how you can get a new system for as little as $99 a month. That's just $3 a day. That's less than your coffee house coffee. Now through October, get up to $3,000 off with rebates and special financing. Call or visit jamesriverair.com and get back to comfort.

• 46:28Speaker 06

  Hey, Richmond, Mark Smith, Midas Richmond, 2026. We have been doing what we do for 29 years, total car care, total community care. In 2026, we are donating $365,000, $1,000 a day for the nonprofits we've historically supported. Gooch and Cares, Shalom Farms, St. Joseph's Villa, Ask, the Colonial Heights Food Pantry, everybody we've helped over the years. These are important things making a big impact in our society right now. Total car care, total community care. That is Midas of Richmond.

• 46:58Speaker 04

  Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's premium wireless is $15 a month. But I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores. That means no small talk. Crazy weather we're having. No, it's not. It's just weather. It is an introvert's dream. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch.

• 47:21Conan O'Brien?

  Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com.

• 47:33Conan O'Brien?

  I had, one of the great highlights of my life is I had a encounter with George. I was a writer on Saturday Night Live and he dropped by one night.

• 47:44Speaker 02

  You were there?

• 47:45Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And he walked into the room and we were, he'd been out with Lorne Michaels. He came back. He wanted to, I guess, come back and see what was going on. And we were all in one room. We were just blown away. He sat at the piano and played a little bit.

• 48:00Conan O'Brien?

  And the whole time I'm thinking, hey, because I'm such a freak, back in my office, which is 30 feet down the hall, I have a 1964 Gretsch Tennessean. That's the same guitar.

• 48:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:15Conan O'Brien?

  Year and make that George had on his second visit to the US as a Beatle in, in, you know, not the Sullivan Show, but in the spring. I could, I could, I could show this to George.

• 48:27Speaker 02

  And did you?

• 48:28Conan O'Brien?

  No.

• 48:29Speaker 02

  Why not? He lost his, some, he, you know, he had a Tennessean.

• 48:33Speaker 04

  Oh, and clearly now we know where it was.

• 48:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, he lost it.

• 48:37Speaker 02

  He would have said.

• 48:38Conan O'Brien?

  A little red haired girl just stole my guitar. He gave it to you. And I said, oh, boy. No, I, I thought about going back there. And then, you know what I thought, Olivia? I thought, don't be that guy. Don't be the guy who's like, hey, mister, you know, look, look. I mean, I didn't want to, I wanted to respect his space.

• 48:56Speaker 02

  Lovely of you. He would have loved that because.

• 48:59Conan O'Brien?

  Damn it. I could have given it to him.

• 49:02Speaker 02

  I thought of him a country gent, right?

• 49:04Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, there's a, there's a country gentleman. And then there's another one. This is how nerdy I am. There's a, so what's called a Tennessean.

• 49:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, the Tennessean.

• 49:12Conan O'Brien?

  Which is the model with one cutaway. And that's the one I have painted F holes. And I only got it because I knew that George had played one. And it was my first electric guitar. And.

• 49:22Speaker 02

  It's a good choice.

• 49:23Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And I was, you know, loved Gretches for the same reason I think George did. And, and just loved the look of them and that fat sound. And so, and then I thought, don't do that. Don't be that guy. So I didn't do it.

• 49:37Speaker 02

  Don't want to make you feel bad.

• 49:38Conan O'Brien?

  You did.

• 49:39Speaker 02

  You would have, he would have sat there jamming with you, I'm afraid.

• 49:43Speaker 02

  He would have, you know what he would have played? He would have played like Carl Perkins.

• 49:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 49:48Speaker 02

  He would have started picking.

• 49:49Conan O'Brien?

  And that's the stuff I know.

• 49:52Conan O'Brien?

  No, I'm, I'm, tell them, I'm a rockabilly guy. This is so much salt in the wound. And then he would have said, why don't you come with me and I'll give you some stuff.

• 50:00Speaker 04

  He really wanted to start a band.

• 50:02Speaker 02

  I'm going to remind you to send you, I have this little clip in the studio where they're playing, I don't know, he's doing one of his songs and he gets bored and he goes into this rockabilly thing. And it's just what you want to hear. I'm gonna, I'll send it to you.

• 50:16Conan O'Brien?

  That, I have the same fascination. I mean, George was a different generation for me, but for some reason I have the exact same fascination. And one of the things I love in the book, at the top of the book, this isn't a photograph that, that George took, but you include this notebook from his school days. And at the outside of the book is very serious. It's something, you know, like.

• 50:35Speaker 02

  German class or something.

• 50:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's a German class. And outside it says, you know, George Harrison, you know, third form or whatever, and the German class notes. And then you open it to the first page and it's all lyrics to Bebop Lula. It's all of these rockabilly songs and he's writing out all the lyrics and drawing guitars. And I'm thinking, I completely understand this man because I, you know, I should be, have been listening to different music, but I always was just in, in love with those, and all those parts he played on Beatles records where that was George. George would put in all these different Carl Perkins riffs and, you know, just great early Sun Session Elvis stuff. And I just, you know, I don't know.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  He used to teach everyone this one solo, I don't know if it was from Elvis song. I'll remember what it was sometime, but he used to teach, say, it's not that hard. Just look, sounds hard, but it's not that difficult.

• 51:31Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 51:32Speaker 02

  You know?

• 51:32Speaker 04

  Well, solos, literally my favorite solo of all time is this simple Let It Be solo that is just so gorgeous. I love him so much.

• 51:41Speaker 02

  He was thoughtful.

• 51:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 51:43Speaker 02

  He was very thoughtful.

• 51:44Conan O'Brien?

  The other thing too, as a musician, there is a thing where a lot of rock guitarist want pyrotechnics and they want to play as many notes as they can as quickly as possible. And then you listen to George's solo on something and you think, oh, this is a masterclass in how to do it. It's, there's not a wasted note. It's simple. He's not showing off, but played so beautifully. Did, did he appreciate how good he was? Because he's so self-effacing in interviews.

• 52:11Speaker 02

  I think, I think, I think he did.

• 52:13Conan O'Brien?

  And he was self-effacing about his playing too, which I never understood. He was like, well, I'm not a clapped and I'm not, and I think like, what do you, you're insane. Unless he's just.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  No.

• 52:22Conan O'Brien?

  Being protective.

• 52:23Speaker 02

  No, you know, he was really thoughtful about it. He was really close to Gary Moore. And Gary could play, you know, 100 notes to George's one, but they were good notes. I think that's what it was about. He didn't like Whitley Whitley where they, he used to go, yeah, it's around here somewhere, you know, when people would be trying to play and.

• 52:44Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'll just keep playing a lot of notes. Some of them will be okay.

• 52:50Speaker 02

  He used to say that it's around here somewhere.

• 52:52Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 52:52Speaker 02

  And then, so he didn't want to do that. He just liked.

• 52:55Conan O'Brien?

  And he'd think it out ahead of time.

• 52:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, he'd think it out. And he, you know, he'd want to, you know, he'd want to just be pure on the, on the notes. He wasn't trying, going somewhere on a holiday to get there to the next note.

• 53:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  He knew where he was going. And he knew where he was going in life, basically metaphor there. But, you know, it's like with, with these, like he was searching for something and he was distorting reality. Somebody, you know, with the, with the filter and the, and the lens, someone said to me, do you like to distort reality? And I was like, okay. You know, it's like, we're looking for something. You're looking, and he was looking for something different in the world. It's like, this is, sometimes this is boring. There's got to be something groovier out there. There's got to be something better. And, and that's when he went on the inner journey. And he did find something there. And I don't think, you know, he's, he used to say, I don't believe it. I know it. What he knew on his own personal journey.

• 53:52Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 53:53Speaker 02

  He said, that's not a belief. It's an experience. So, um, yeah, he, I think he, what he played, he believed in.

• 54:02Conan O'Brien?

  Mm hmm.

• 54:02Speaker 02

  He never said that was a crap solo. Otherwise, he wouldn't, you know, he, he would never give anybody something that he didn't think was good.

• 54:10Conan O'Brien?

  Um, my last question is, how are you? It's been twenty some odd years.

• 54:17Speaker 02

  Twenty five years.

• 54:18Conan O'Brien?

  Twenty five years since, since, since George passed. And, um, I encounter you, as I said, a, a, a number of times, and I, I'm always just kind of smitten. You're just so fun to be with and to talk to. And you're so lovely and just radiant in your personality. You're just, you're, you're very, um, you bring a lot of light. You bring a lot of light into situations. And we've had some really good conversations. And so I'm just curious, how is your life?

• 54:47Speaker 02

  It's funny. I mean, I, I, I have, uh, I have fun in this head of mine.

• 54:52Conan O'Brien?

  Mm hmm.

• 54:53Speaker 02

  I, you know, sometimes I'm on my own and I'm on my own a lot. But, um, there's a party going on. I don't know how or why, but I feel very blessed to feel like that and to be curious.

• 55:04Conan O'Brien?

  Mm hmm.

• 55:04Speaker 02

  I'm super curious. Uh, I don't go searching things on the internet, you know, but I might, you might find me on my hands and knees, under a cupboard, looking for something I might have dropped twenty years ago. Because I remember that thing and I'm gonna put it back together. You know?

• 55:19Conan O'Brien?

  So that's your internet.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  That's kind of my crazy, that's my crazy thing. And, and.

• 55:23Conan O'Brien?

  Also, at, at, I'm sorry, at Friar Park, if you're looking for something you misplaced in this massive Victorian, uh, kooky house, um, with a million secret passageways, you're screwed.

• 55:36Speaker 04

  How many hidden gnomes are under covers?

• 55:38Conan O'Brien?

  I know I put it near a gnome. Which one?

• 55:40Speaker 02

  I'm building a gnomery, by the way. So, you know, it's a word I invented. And, uh, I have, I have a little help.

• 55:46Conan O'Brien?

  Welcome to the gnomery.

• 55:48Speaker 02

  Peter Jackson is helping me out.

• 55:50Speaker 04

  Two enter, one leave.

• 55:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do, you know, I do things like that. Or, you know, people come over and they go, I don't know, what are we gonna do? I don't know. Should we go in the caves?

• 55:57Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. It's sort of those Matterhorn caves that ripped off Disneyland before it was Disneyland.

• 56:03Conan O'Brien?

  The, um, yeah, I'm just, I, I know, I do have a really clear memory of there's a pair of Ray-Bans on a gnome, walking through, and there was a pair of Ray-Bans on a gnome. And Danny said, yeah, my dad put those Ray-Bans on the gnome, and he just thought it was funny. So we've left it there ever since.

• 56:17Speaker 02

  It's still there.

• 56:18Conan O'Brien?

  And it's really hilarious. Yeah.

• 56:20Speaker 02

  They've been there, oh, yeah, they've been there now, like, probably forty, five years, forty years, something like that.

• 56:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 56:26Speaker 02

  Every time I come out, you know, I just, now he's got a thing coming out of his mouth as well, like a little pipe, but the pipe bit fell off, you know? It's, yeah. And I actually am having some gnomes restored as we speak. I was looking at them this morning.

• 56:40Conan O'Brien?

  I'm sorry, who restores gnomes?

• 56:42Speaker 04

  Oh, I know a guy.

• 56:42Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, you know a guy? You know what? I bet you know a guy. I bet you know a guy. Yeah.

• 56:48Speaker 02

  No, there are gnome, there are gnome groups. I don't engage with them because I know I'll never get rid of them.

• 56:54Conan O'Brien?

  Never engage with a gnome group.

• 56:55Speaker 02

  No, I don't engage because, uh, supposedly some of the first gnomes ever made have come to Friar, where Friar Park, and they're like really valuable. George used to paint them with like nail varnish. And I kept saying, stop doing that because these are really valuable. They're like in a museum. So, you know, so now they're all.

• 57:12Conan O'Brien?

  There's a little sign that George made there that stuck in the grass that says like, uh, uh, what's it?

• 57:18Speaker 02

  Don't keep off the grass.

• 57:19Conan O'Brien?

  Don't keep off the grass. Like, just, there's just little, uh, George barbs everywhere when you walk around and flights of fantasy.

• 57:27Speaker 02

  I know, I know. And, and you know, even, yeah, to this day, I don't, um, I just feel his presence so strongly.

• 57:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 57:36Speaker 02

  I'm laughing most of the time because I think of things that happened, you know, there, uh, which just funny stuff.

• 57:46Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 57:46Speaker 02

  You're talking about the Wilbur's, you know, like Thanksgiving dinner, and then I can't find anybody and they're all in the pantry eating leftovers, you know, with like five guys in there. What are you, don't tell her I'm drinking a Coca-Cola. One of the husbands.

• 57:59Conan O'Brien?

  Dylan's like, where's the cranberry?

• 58:03Conan O'Brien?

  Got to be more of that syrup. Yeah. This syrup's really good.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  And Roy Orbison's like, don't tell Barbara, because he's having a cigarette and drinking Coke.

• 58:12Conan O'Brien?

  I'll get in trouble. Roy Orbison's worried he'll get in trouble.

• 58:15Speaker 02

  So sweet, the sweetest, sweetest, sweetest fan with the most incredible voice.

• 58:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 58:21Speaker 02

  Just, anyway, we could.

• 58:23Conan O'Brien?

  We could do this for several hours and I'd be really, really happy. Uh, well, I can't wait till I see you again. Until then, would you give my love to Danny?

• 58:32Speaker 02

  I will.

• 58:33Conan O'Brien?

  And, um, just, yeah, anything I can ever do for you, I'm here.

• 58:38Speaker 02

  Thank you. And thank all of you.

• 58:39Speaker 04

  Oh, this is special.

• 58:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, this is really special. And congratulations on the book. It's gorgeous. And I know George will be really happy.

• 58:46Speaker 02

  Oh, thanks. Thanks for that.

• 58:49Speaker 04

  Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy.

• 59:09Speaker 04

  Our supervising producer is Erin Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of Sirius XM when you sign up at siriusxm.com/conan. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

• 59:58Speaker 05

  Is your heating and cooling system getting old? Did it struggle through the summer? Don't wait for it to leave you out in the cold this winter. Call James River Air and ask how you can get a new system for as little as $99 a month. That's just $3 a day. That's less than your coffee house coffee. Now through October, get up to $3,000 off with rebates and special financing. Call or visit jamesriverair.com and get back to comfort.

• 1:00:27Speaker 06

  Hey, Richmond. Mark Smith, Midas Richmond. 2026. We have been doing what we do for 29 years. Total car care, total community care. In 2026, we are donating $365,000, $1,000 a day to the nonprofits we've historically supported. Gooch and Care, Shalom Farms, St. Joseph's Villa, Ask, the Colonial Heights Food Pantry, everybody we've helped over the years. These are important things making a big impact in our society right now. Total car care, total community care. That is Midas of Richmond.