Growing up in St. Louis, when Beatle madness hit we had an insider. George Harrison’s sister Louise lived in Benton Illinois, southern Illinois and not far away. She became like a link for us when she was on KXOX to give us scoop about her brother.

I’m reading George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle By Philip Norman. He tells of the time when George came to southern Illinois to visit his sister for two weeks before they were known in America. In England they were already big and he was used to having women scream and chase him. Here he was just another guy except for his long hair.

Norman comes up with two tidbits I had never heard before.

Louise ordered pizza delivered, something George had never experienced in England. When the attractive young woman delivered the pizza George asked for her a date and she said no.

“I wouldn’t want to be seen with him” she told a fellow worker at the pizzeria about his hair.

The other story is that he spent some time with a group called the Four Vests pop group and they were impressed with his guitar playing.

One night at a concert they let him do “Roll Over Beethoven”. It must have been something like Michael J. Fox impersonating Chuck Berry in Back to the Future. Everyone went slack jawed as George stopped the show.

An audience member went up to one of the Four Vests afterword and said “If that guy’s trying out with you you oughta hire him.”