Happy birthday to Dhani Harrison! (Photo by David M. Benett.)
“When your parents are cool hippies, the only way to rebel is to get straight A’s, do sports and enroll in a military school. That’s what I did.” - Dhani Harrison, New York Post, February 17, 2009
“Seeing how amazing, sweet and talented Dhani is, and how cool and amazing Olivia is — you can tell a lot about a person by who their friends are and who they love. […] They’re such incredible people, and they love him so much, and you can see how much he loved them. I love his art, his gardens and his home, and all the incredible things he’s written, but I think my favorite moment of George’s is Dhani and Olivia.“ - Regina Spektor, Filter, Fall 2011
“Shortly after Dhani was born Ravi and Alla Rakha took the train over to visit us [George, Olivia and Dhani], and I picked them up at Reading. They came over to see the baby, and Ravi wrote a tune called ‘Dhani.’ The name ‘Dhani’ actually came from my study of Indian music: from the scale of Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma-Pa-DHA-NI-Sa. So he wrote this song, and Alla Rahka played on one half of the tabla, the bayan.” - George Harrison, Raga Mala (1997)
“Of course one of my favorites on there [Gone Troppo] is ‘Unknown Delight.’ He was saying, ‘What should I write about? What should I write a song about?’ I said, ‘Write a song about Dhani,’ and he wrote this beautiful song which was very prescient actually.” - Olivia Harrison, Dark Horse Radio, 2018
“‘Jerry Moss [A&M co-founder] put my mom on the Dark Horse project because she was the only person cool enough there,’ adds Dhani. ‘She was a meditator, and they figured she would get on with my dad real well, which evidently she did.’ The two were married in 1978, the year Dhani was born: ‘I was one of their early releases,’ he says drolly.)” - Rolling Stone, March 9, 2020
“I didn’t really learn to play from my dad, I learned to play with my dad. He never really taught me anything but the 12-bar and the fundamental chords; we just played a lot together.” - Dhani Harrison, Filter, Fall 2011
“[Dhani] fondly recalled how the two would often sit together at home, strumming their acoustic guitars, as they played vintage blues songs by Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and J.B. Lenoir.” - Pop Talk, creators dot com
“‘George never held anything back, even when Dhani was really young, so they were very close, and Dhani had a clear understanding. Some of the things George told him, it was almost like he knew he might not be around later on, so he had to tell him then.
‘So yes, it’s difficult to make your own way, but that’s what it was, and Dhani loved that guy, they were very close.’
Olivia could equally be talking about herself.” - Huffington Post, September 24, 2014 (x)
