Like many other musicians, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl felt his life change when he first heard the music of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The Beatles were a major source of inspiration for Grohl, and he was a particular fan of Harrison. He even wrote a song about the guitarist, though he didn’t like it all that much.

Dave Grohl isn’t a fan of a song he wrote about George Harrison

Grohl was such a fan of Harrison’s song “Something” that he tried to mimic it in a Foo Fighters song.

“On the first Foo Fighters record, there is a song entitled ‘Oh, George.’ I basically wanted the guitar solo to sound like something he would do,” Grohl said on BBC Radio 2. “But the guitar solo in the song ‘Something’ is the first guitar solo I ever learned.”

The guitar solo on “Something” stunned him.

“It’s such a beautiful solo,” he said. “Melodically, it’s safe to say that it’s one of the most classic guitar solos of all time. Such a beautiful song.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t think his tribute to Harrison measured up to “Something.” He once described “Oh, George” as his “least favorite song,” though he said the band made it “so quickly that it doesn’t really count.”

Dave Grohl said he feels a connection with George Harrison

Harrison was a big fan of all the Beatles, but he said he felt a particular connection with Harrison. 

“I think that of all The Beatles, of course, each of them is so entirely different,” he said.  “Melodically, their songwriting, lyrically, but George Harrison, there was almost something about him that I almost preferred the most.”

Harrison didn’t write many songs in the band’s early years, but he proved his strength as a songwriter in the latter half of the 1960s. Grohl said he appreciated Harrison’s sense of melody.

“I loved every single one of them for different reasons, but I connected to George Harrison’s sense of melody more than anyone.”

He is friends with other former members of The Beatles

Though Grohl might prefer Harrison for his melodies, he has befriended both McCartney and Starr. He shared what it was like to meet The Beatles’ bassist. They met after the Concert for George at Royal Albert Hall.

“I noticed Paul McCartney out of the corner of my eye, chatting away with friends, and I couldn’t help but stare. There. He. Was,” Grohl wrote on his blog Dave’s True Stories, adding, “I don’t know what it feels like to see a UFO. I don’t know what it feels like to see a ghost. I don’t know what it feels like to see Bigfoot, but I know what it feels like to see Paul McCartney, and if that’s not a supernatural event, then I don’t know what is.”

He said he felt so overwhelmed that he can’t remember how his conversation with McCartney went.

“What happened next will forever remain a blur,” he wrote. “I don’t recall exactly how Paul and I were introduced, what was said, or how long we talked, but I do remember putting on my best ‘this is not the most incredible thing ever to happen to me’ face while trying to keep from making a fool of myself.”