The Beatles’ Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr met for the last time in New York on November 12, 2001. The three surviving bandmates shared lunch at Harrison’s hotel while he was receiving treatment for cancer.
Harrison’s health had deteriorated during a year of treatment. He had undergone surgery for a cancerous growth in his lung and traveled to New York that November for radiotherapy after the disease spread to his brain. McCartney and Starr’s visit brought together three friends whose lives had been intertwined since long before their solo careers.
When McCartney spoke about a final visit to Harrison, he remembered being able to laugh with him. During a December 2001 radio appearance with Mark and Lard, reported by the Irish Examiner, he said: “The best thing for me was seeing him for a couple of hours and laughing and joking and holding his hand.” The physical contact stayed with him afterward. They had gone to school and ridden buses together, but McCartney realized that he had never held Harrison’s hand before. He also remembered Harrison gently moving his thumb against his hand.
Their friendship had continued through separate careers and another period of recording together. In the mid-1990s, McCartney, Harrison and Starr returned to Beatles work for the Anthology project. They added performances to John Lennon’s home recordings to make “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” which appeared on Anthology 1 and Anthology 2, respectively. Alongside the archive recordings, those songs gave listeners new collaborations involving all four Beatles, with the surviving members building their parts around Lennon’s recordings. Starr described the sessions as natural and enjoyable, though emotional at times.
Harrison died in Los Angeles on November 29, 2001, aged 58, seventeen days after the lunch. McCartney also said in his December radio appearance that he and Starr had spoken after the death, struggling to find words for their shared loss.
On November 29, 2002, McCartney and Starr took part in Concert for George at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The tribute brought Harrison’s friends and collaborators together to perform music from his career. The concert film followed in 2003.
