Before they were history-defining rock stars, Paul McCartney and George Harrison were just two teenagers having adventures.
McCartney shared a story on this week’s episode of “The Rest is History” podcast about the time he and Harrison were hitchhiking as teens to Wales.
“We got a lift from a milk float, which was electric. Those were the only vehicles we knew that were electric, [and it] went about four miles an hour, but it was a lift, so we were quite happy,” the Beatle recalled.
He explained, “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.”
The ride was going smoothly enough until Harrison felt a jolt.
“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 said.
He continued, “[The zip] connected up and the battery had given him a bolt,” adding, “And later, when we got to our B&B, he showed me. Yeah, he had a great big zip tattooed into his bum.”
McCartney also revealed that Harrison’s widow Olivia thought the story was actually about him, not her late husband.
“I said, ‘It wasn’t it me, it was George!’ But I think it’s amazing the way memory does that. It can just morph.”
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