Nearly 20 years after John Lennon was fatally shot by Mark David Chapman outside his NYC apartment building, fellow former Beatle George Harrison's life was nearly ended by another random, violent encounter inside his own home — and one of his closest friends recently opened up about the terrifying incident in a new interview.
On the latest episode of the Adam Buxton Podcast, British comedian Eric Idle — a founding member of Monty Python's Flying Circus and a longtime friend of Harrison — shared his memories of the attack and how it affected the legendary musician.
“He was very disturbed,” Idle said, adding, “I have never, ever seen him more disturbed. It was really shocking, because they fought for 20 minutes.”
On Dec. 30, 1999, a 34-year-old intruder named Michael Abram broke into Harrison's Friar Park Estate in Henley-on-Thames, England, armed with a "butcher's knife."
According to Idle, Abram was a "crazed guy, off his meds," who actually wanted to kill Paul McCartney.
"He couldn't find Paul, so it's easier to find Henley," Idle explained.
“He came over the wall, smashed in the window, and George, I think, came out because George was the bold one, who told the Hells Angels to f—k off," he continued, referring to the time Harrison threw a group of disruptive members of the Hells Angels out of the Beatles' Apple Corps office in London.
"He was always the one who came and said, 'No, you've got to f—k off,'" Idle added. “I think he did the same thing. He went at the top of the stairs and told him to f—k off. And then he yelled 'Hare Krishna!' and the guy came at him up the stairs with a knife. It would have been wiser, perhaps, to lock the door and call the police.”
Harrison and Abram fought for the next 20 minutes, with Harrison's wife, Olivia, joining the struggle. At one point, Olivia hit Abram with a fireplace poker, but that didn't stop him.
“Liv, in the end, bashed him over the head with a Tiffany lamp, and they were all passed out when the police arrived, and blood everywhere," Idle recalled. "It was like a scene from a horror film.”
George Harrison 'believed' he was dying after being stabbed
In a statement read to the court during Abram's trial in 2000, Harrison admitted "there was a time during this violent struggle that I truly believed I was dying," per The Guardian.
According to Harrison, after Abram broke into his home, "he stopped in the center of the room and looked towards me. He started shouting and screaming."
"The man was yelling: 'You get down here.' Harrison asked who he was. The man replied: 'You know, get down here.'"
"I made the decision to shout back at him to distract him. I looked down and shouted Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna," Harrison said. Unfortunately, that tactic didn't work.
"My first instinct was to grab for the knife," Harrison explained. "We fell to the floor. I was fending off blows with my hands. He was on top of me and stabbing down at my upper body."
Harrison went on to describe the moment he sustained a life-threatening wound which caused his lung to collapse.
"I felt exhausted and could feel the strength draining from me. I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed," Harrison said.
Part of Harrison's lung had to be removed following the attack, according to Guitar Player, which might have contributed to his death two years later as the injury made an operation to remove lung cancer much riskier.
Abram was judged not guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced to indefinite confinement in a psychiatric hospital. He was released in 2002, eight months after Harrison died.
Related: How the 'Quiet Beatle' United the Music World for History-Making Benefit Concert 54 Years Ago Today
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