Beatles legend George Harrison turned down an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.
Although the Fab Four split in 1970, each member continued to make solo music in the decades that followed. While their friendships were ultimately repaired, their rivalries in the charts went on.
John Lennon enjoyed a decade of releasing chart-topping hits before he was murdered in 1980. George Harrison dropped 10 albums across a decade, nearly all of which hit gold status. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney have continued to release albums to this day.
But there were some things they couldn't compete on. In 1997, McCartney was the recipient of an extremely exclusive honour from The Queen herself.
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On March 11, 1997, McCartney attended Buckingham palace to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He was granted the medal by the monarch for his "services to music".
From that day onwards, he was known as Sir Paul McCartney. But Harrison was reportedly "insulted" by this turn of events. Harrison was confused by the fact only McCartney's services to music were recognised by the Crown - even though Harrison (and Starr, for that matter) were his bandmates. Lennon, of course, had died in 1980.
Just a few years later, in 2000, Harrison was offered a royal honour of his own. The Queen was due to give him an OBE - but he turned it down. Ray Connelly, a friend of The Beatles, explained how hurt Harrison would have been made to feel by this gesture, after McCartney was given a knighthood.
Connelly said: "Whoever it was who decided to offer him the OBE and not the knighthood was extraordinarily insensitive. George would have felt insulted – and with very good reason."
Harrison didn't completely miss out, however. The Fab Four had already received MBEs back in 1965. At the time, The Quiet Beatle noted that he "didn’t think you got that sort of thing, just for playing rock ‘n’ roll music."
When The Beatles received their awards in the 1960s, Harrison and the rest of the band were quizzed over their MBEs. They were asked if they thought they "deserved" them.
Harrison replied: "It’s not up to us to say that. The Queen must have thought so, or she wouldn’t have given them to us, would she?"
Despite the fact Harrison turned down The Queen's generous offer, he previously admitted he didn't hold any ill will towards the monarchy. He noted how Queen Elizabeth was "all right".
He said: "The Queen’s, you know, it’s not, it’s different like the Prez [President] over here [in the USA], The Prez seems to be the heavy guy. Whereas the Queen just, like, goes around waving all the time. And, you know, it’s really her karma, her, you know, the fickle finger of fate pointed at her and she happened to, you know, she didn’t split and she had to go around waving. But she is, she’s a nice lady and that makes it even worse somehow."
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