Paul McCartney has shared a hilarious memory of the time his late Beatles bandmate George Harrison gave himself an electric shock by sitting on a car battery during a teenage hitchhiking trip.
Speaking on an episode of “The Rest Is History” podcast, McCartney, 83, recalled how the pair were hitchhiking down south to Wales when they hitched a ride on an electric milk float traveling at about four miles per hour.
“The driver was sitting on the right-hand side, then there was a battery in the middle, and then there was the passenger seat on the left-hand side, and George sat on the battery,” McCartney said.
The slow-moving journey took a sudden turn when Harrison’s choice of clothing inadvertently caused a mishap.
“We’re getting our lift, and then suddenly ‘Bang!’ And he jumps up. I go, ‘What’s that, what’s wrong?’ And he had a pair of jeans with a zip on the back pocket, and it had connected with the two points … not on the crotch,” McCartney recalled.
Following the sudden jolt, the “Maybe I’m Amazed” singer said Harrison jumped up and yelled, “Oh, bloody hell!”
“[The zip] connected up, and the battery had given him a bolt,” McCartney stated. “And later, when we got to our B&B, he showed me. Yeah, he had a great big zip tattooed into his bum.”
The 19-time Grammy winner revealed that the incident remains a topic of conversation today, though recollections have blurred over time. McCartney recently met with Harrison’s widow, who loved the story but thought McCartney was the one who had actually been zapped.
“I said, ‘It wasn’t me, it was George!’ But I think it’s amazing the way memory does that. It can just morph,” McCartney remarked.
The hitchhiking era still serves as a daily reminder for McCartney of his longtime friend, who died in 2001.
In a 2020 interview with NPR’s “All Things Considered,” the “Live and Let Die” performer shared that he regularly talks to a large coniferous fir tree near his gate, which Harrison, an avid gardener, had gifted him.
McCartney said that looking at the evergreen tree always takes him “back to the time when I hitchhiked with him!”
“As the years go by, every time I look at it, I go, ‘That’s the tree George gave me.’ George has entered that tree for me. I hope he’s happy with that,” McCartney said.
The lighthearted hitchhiking memory also served as the inspiration for a song on McCartney’s forthcoming 19th solo album, “The Boys of Dungeon Lane,” which is scheduled for release on May 29.
