George Harrison Once Suffered A Hilarious Mishap On A Road Trip With Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney and George Harrison are undoubtedly best known for playing bass and lead guitar, respectively, in legendary rock band The Beatles. However, McCartney's friendship with Harrison actually dates back well before the formation of the iconic group, when they were schoolmates living in Liverpool. Like most young boys, McCartney and Harrison got into their fair share of shenanigans way back when. According to the "Maybe I'm Amazed" hitmaker, this often involved himself and Harrison hitchhiking across England just for the adventure of it all. That being said, these intrepid excursions were not without their mishaps. 

As the former Beatles bassist recalled, at least one road trip turned quite painful for his late bandmate in an admittedly hilarious way. During a May 2026 appearance on "The Rest Is History" podcast, the Grammy winner recounted the story of the time he and Harrison caught a ride on a milk float. "Those were the only vehicles we knew that were electric. Went about four miles an hour. But it was a lift, so we were quite happy," McCartney said. There was a battery in between the driver seat and the passenger seat. He sat in the passenger seat, while Harrison perched on the battery. 

"And everything's going fine, we're going along, we're getting our lift, and then suddenly, bang! 'Ahh!' And he jumps up. I go, 'What's that?! What's wrong?!' [...] He had a pair of jeans with a zip on the [back] pocket. And it had connected with the two points [...] given him a bolt," the former Beatle explained. The shock was so intense that it left a solid mark on the skin beneath Harrison's jeans. "Later, when we got to our B&B, he showed me. Yeah, he had a great big zip tattooed into his bum," McCartney shared.

Paul McCartney told his humorous hitchhiking story on "The Rest Is History" to set the record straight about what really happened all those years ago. Apparently, some of the details of the story had been distorted after circulating around their social circles for so long. More specifically, George Harrison's wife, Olivia Harrison, was under the impression that it was the Grammy winner, not her late husband, that had gotten a shock on the milk float. "She was saying, 'Oh, I love that story of you and George going down to Wales and you sitting on the battery, and it connecting, and you got a scar on your bum.' I said [...] 'It wasn't me! It was George!'" McCartney pointed out. Moreover, the "Temporary Secretary" hitmaker is fascinated by the unreliability of memory, and being a public figure has made him appreciate how the details of history can often be twisted by those documenting it. 

"Through all the, sort of, wrong stories about The Beatles, I realize, you know, that [King] Harold with the arrow in the eye — 'Oh, I get it! It was for the tapestry!'" he noted. Along with keeping in touch with Olivia, McCartney maintains a strong spiritual connection with George Harrison — and he still looks back on their youthful adventures fondly. "He gave me a tree as a present [...] It's by my gate. [...] I get out of the car, close the gate and look up at the tree and say, 'Hi, George.' There he is, growing strongly. And you know, that takes me back to the time when I hitchhiked with him!" the former Beatle informed NPR in 2020.