In November 1971, George Harrison stopped by The Dick Cavett Show to act as one of the main guests for an episode of the talk show along with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar and rock singer Gary Wright. Segments of the episode were recently shared to YouTube by Daphne Productions, Inc., which owns the rights to the classic talk show. The interview features a young Harrison, who’d still been a member of The Beatles just a little over a year earlier.
One of the segments shared to the show’s YouTube is that of a conversation with the topic of drugs within rock and roll and show business. After Cavett allows Harrison to vent on his frustration with the over-commercialization of American television, George briefly touches on the time he and John Lennon were dosed with LSD by their dentist. He also discusses his take on whether or not rock start should bear responsibility for glamourizing drug use.
The two do get a little serious late on in the segment where the topic of heroin use and the problem with substance addiction amongst entertainers.
“I’m really unqualified to talk about heroin because I’ve never taken it and I really don’t intend to,” Harrison says honestly later on in the video. “I’m sure it’s probably just the best high, that’s what it’s down to. It’s the one that gets them the highest the quickest, but it just happens to kill you faster as well. I mean they all sort of kill you in one way or another.”
Watch the clip from 1971 below.
George Harrison on The Dick Cavett Show – November 1971
[Video: The Dick Cavett Show]