Former Beatle George Harrison lost a long battle with cancer Thursday, quietly passing away in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and family. He was 58.
“He left this world as he lived in it,” the Harrison family said in a statement. “Conscious of God, fearless of death and at peace, surrounded by family and friends.”
The musician, who helped change the world of music during the Beatles’ tenure in the 1960s, will be remembered with a minute of meditation on Dec. 3. Harrison’s family has asked the world to remember his life today at 3:30 p.m. CST.
While not as universally renowned as the Fab Four’s singing/songwriting duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Harrison was universally respected as the “dark horse.” Without his contribution, the spiritual side of the Beatles’ music might never have been recorded.
Harrison was one of the first rock musicians to experiment with Eastern-influenced music. From the groundbreaking use of the sitar, a traditional Indian instrument, in “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” off 1965’s Rubber Soul to the epic “Within You Without You” off Sgt. Pepper, Harrison revolutionized rock and roll.
Harrison also encouraged the Beatles to turn inward musically, proposing they cease performing live and instead work more intricately in the studio.
When the Beatles decided never to tour again, Harrison was able to apply his spiritual and musical gifts, penning such classics as “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” for 1968’s White Album and “Something,” the first Harrison song released as an A-side single, for 1969’s Abbey Road.
Post-Beatles, Harrison continued to enjoy enormous, albeit more sparse, success with albums such as All Things Must Pass and singles such as “My Sweet Lord” and “Got My Mind Set On You.”
Harrison also worked with musicians across the scene, from the Traveling Wilburys, a band that also featured Bob Dylan, to former Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.
Harrison worked hard until his final days. With the chart-topping Beatles release Number One last year and an unfinished new album rumored to be released shortly, his age never showed in his music.
For four years, Harrison fought a downhill battle with cancer. A long-time smoker, Harrison had a nodule removed from his lung and underwent radiation therapy after he discovered a lump on his neck in 1997.
He was nearly killed in 1999 after he was attacked and stabbed by a mentally ill man. Earlier this year, a cancerous growth was removed from his lung; since then, Harrison dodged media reports that his health was declining.
Soon after his death, fans flocked to his London mansion and to Strawberry Fields in Central Park. Flags in Liverpool, Harrison’s birthplace, are being flown at half-mast, and fans are leaving floral tributes at Abbey Road studios.
Harrison’s funeral took place before his death was announced to the media, but tributes have poured in all week.
Harrison is survived by his wife, Olivia, his son, Dhani, and by the two remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. John Lennon was assassinated by a deranged fan in 1980.
