Why Paul McCartney Declined to Perform at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh
In 1971, George Harrison invited his former bandmates, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, to perform at his benefit concert, the Concert for Bangladesh. The Beatles had only been separated for about a year and were still entangled in a tense legal battle.
While organizing the Concert for Bangladesh, George wanted rock stars with enormous star power on stage to raise the maximum amount of money for the humanitarian crisis.
So, he put the suffering of the Bengali people ahead of his issues with his former bandmates and asked them to perform. George knew having a Beatles reunion on stage would give the benefit concert a massive push.
In Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Joshua M. Greene wrote, “George rented a house in Los Angeles and began mounting the music industry’s first charity rock concert. He spent the second half of June and the first half of July making phone calls, convincing some of the world’s finest rock artists to join together in a humanitarian gesture unprecedented for the music industry.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
