The Quiet Beatle Part 2

At first, George loved the trappings of fame. When the Beatles became a worldwide sensation, everything was thrown at them. Wine, women, and song. And, money. Big time money. George became a millionaire by the age of 21. He purchased a mansion called Friar Park. It was his hideaway from the madness. As an adult , George still valued his privacy. And, when he moved into the house, he now had a roommate... Pattie Boyd met George on the set of ''A Hard Days Night'' . She was an extra and a model. All blue eyed and blonde, she stole George's heart at first glance. He asked her out on the first day of filming. She said no, but, a Beatle didn't take no for an answer. Finally, after putting him off for a week, she consented to go out on a date with him. Very fast, they became an item and Pattie moved into Friar Park. They were married in 1966 and never had any children... George might have been married, but, that didn't stop him having some bachelor fun. All of the boys were terrible at monogamy. The tours they went on around the world were drug debauched orgies. No man was immune. The women were blissfully ignorant of what was happening. The Boys from Liverpool were old fashioned men: the women stayed at home... Around 1965, John and George and their wives were invited to a dinner at a dentist friend's house. Without their knowledge, LSD was slipped into the coffee. Fearing for their health, the four made a hasty exit. They went to a club. That is when the effects of the drug kicked in. The women were terrified. John was entranced. George, however, had the most lasting memory of the trip. It awakened the path of enlightenment for him. George said that was the moment when he found God. He felt God in everything and he felt himself in everything. The part of his soul that lay dormant to spirituality came alive. No longer was he the same person. The door had opened for him, and, until the end of his life, he was searching for the Divine. This was no drug fueled delusion. George felt it deep in his soul.... But, living in the material world tested his new found life. The vices were still tempting him. George tried hard to resist, but, by his own account, he failed many times. Infidelity, rampant drug use, and most depressing of all to him, the Beatles experience was stifling him. While the boys still were each others best friends, the rot was setting in. Brian Epstein's death, the pressures of the public, the runaway madness of their business company Apple, and, above all, the arrival of Yoko Ono in John's life made it all collapse... George never outgrew his admiration of John Lennon. The two became close as the years went by, but, George never lost the feeling that John was his hero. As he was the baby in his family, George became the baby of the Beatles. John and Paul were the older brothers, Ringo was the add on. As George began to write his own songs in 1963, John was his role model. George sang like John, wrote songs in John's pitch, and, behaved as John wanted him to. With the arrival of Yoko, George lost his contact with John. As Lennon changed, so did the makeup of the Beatles. In the past, John would be the buffer between Paul and the band. Paul was born to dominate and he did so frequently with George and Ringo. John would step in and, since he was the leader, Paul would back off. With Yoko on the scene, there was no buffer. And, that was when George and Paul started having their problems. All the pieces began to fall apart. Their empire was crumbling. Sadly, so was the brotherhood they had with each other.... Ironically, with the collapse of the group, George started writing some of his best songs. ''While My Guitar Gently Weeps,'' ''Here Comes The Sun'', ''Something''. George was  finally writing his masterpieces alongside the juggernaut of Lennon- McCartney classics. By the time the group finally disbanded in 1970, George was primed to have the best solo career of the four....