Beatle George Harrison Suffered From OCD, New Book Says
May 30 2012, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
While a slew of celebrities have admitted their battles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder -- Howard Stern, Megan Fox, and Howie Mandel, among them -- the bestselling book BackStage Pass VIP says late Beatle George Harrison also had symptoms of the neurological disorder.
“While under extreme personal and professional pressures in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Harrison’s OCD symptoms accelerated," BackStage Pass VIP author Debra Sharon Davis said. "His need for order, extreme neatness and disciplining his life to be controlled and predictable was stifling -- a burdensome form of self-imprisonment."
One of Davis's examples of Harrison's OCD behavior manifesting itself came when George recorded his album All Things Must Pass in 1970, as colleagues and co-workers who were present at the time cited an unusual practice on his part.
“At his recording sessions Harrison employed a tea boy, a fellow whose sole job was to brew tea and immediately tidy up the empty cups and scattered napkins," Davis wrote. "The tea boy was under strict orders -- no sooner did a musician put down his cup then it was instantly confiscated along with soiled napkins.
"It appeared that for Harrison, wrestling with OCD symptoms, one wayward teacup or crumbled napkin constituted a distracting, paralyzing, chaotic mess that hindered his concentration and made him extremely nervous.”
Davis said the Beatle, who died in 2001, "had surgically structured his life as if he was balancing on a flimsy tightrope above a pool of crocodiles."
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