My Friend, George Harrison: Reflections on the Cool Beatle (Features)

The minute I saw George in those blue jeans, work shirt, and those sand-colored boots, I had to have them, and that was exactly what I wore for the months that followed.

George Harrison was my friend. I never met him face-to-face, but that doesn’t matter. From the mid-60s until his death on November 29, 2001, I truly thought of him as my friend, in a way that I haven’t ever felt about any other musician or celebrity. New Year’s Eve 1999, when it was reported that he’d been stabbed by an intruder but luckily survived, it was that -- his survival -- that I celebrated at midnight. And when I read about his courage, drawing the attacker to himself and away from his wife, I thought, “Well, what else would you…