Saturday, February 8, 2014

25 Days of Harrison Day 7- Dhani Harrison

"In almost any profession, even if you're the kid of an actor, people are very supportive and want to see the next generation succeed."- Dhani Harrison

Dhani were The Harrison's (Olivia and George) only child born on 1 August, 1978 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. The name "Dhani" came from the sixth and seventh note in the Indian music scale; "Dha" "Ni". Dhani grew up in Friar Park, a Gothic-style, old Roman Catholic school that his father had bought in 1970 and would later go on to attend and graduate from the Ivy League's Brown University majoring in Visual Arts and later went on into aerodynamics.

From early on he was musically talented, giving his first performance in front of 50,000 people in 1991 in Tokyo with his dad. At a young age George had figured out that his son could keep time and sounded like he would be a good drummer, Dhani was given a kit and he was given lessons by the one and only Ringo Starr (Uncle Ringo), when Ringo started playing the loud noise scared Dhani and that was the end of his drumming career. He was given a guitar and learned to play along with his dad and friends. Being an only child he and his parents were extremely close, just like his dad he was into cars and racing, loved going to Grand Pix races. But not only did he have the same interest as his dad but he was a mini version of his father, the resemblance is unbelievable! One memory Dhani has of his father is of when he was fifteen years old he had gotten into trouble with the police and when George saw the police he just told them to "Fuck off", Dhani says in Martin Scorsese Living In The Material World, that that was when he realized his dad was cool and on his side. Another is of how his dad would tell him to skip school and just hang out with him, they could just go away but as Dhani said that to rebel in his family it was to go to school and as a kid he went to a military school which George hated and people would think Dhani was mad for not taking that opportunity up, but he was just rebelling.

During his final year George had been working on an album called "Brainwashed" with good friend Jeff Lynne and his son. Fighting cancer he got as much as he could done and made sure that Jeff and Dhani knew exactly what to do if he passed away before the project was over. George took his last breath on 29 November, 2001 leaving the album unfinished. Dhani and Jeff worked as best as they could to produce the album in 2002 in George's requests. Dhani is credited for over dubbing The Traveling Wilbury's "Maxine" and "Like A Ship" in the 2007 collection under the name of Ayrton Wilbury after The Harrison's friend Ayrton Senna. The following Video is The Brainwashed Full Album

"I did everything I could to not be a musician"- Dhani Harrison
Dhani is now preforming in his band thenewno2 and was former member of Fistful of Mercy. As quoted above, he did everything he could not to be a musician because his dad was. He says that he would like to make music and have it be heard without help of his fathers name. Unfortunately, Dhani was talented since he was a kid and took his talent in forming bands. He had recently married long time girlfriend, Sola in June of 2012 where she wore a dress designed by Stella McCartney (daughter of Paul); Celebrities Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Tom Hanks would attend.


Sola and Dhani
Living In The Material Worlds starts with Dhani talking about his dad;
"Is there anything you would say to George if he were around today?
Dhani Harrison:
Were have you been? I had a dream and that was what I said to him in the dream, so I guess that’s what would be the question. Where have you been since I last saw you? And he answered it, so I can tell you the answer as well, which was, “Here, the whole time.” "
"Olivia said that with Dhani up on the stage, it looks like George stayed young and we all got old"- Paul McCartney

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