Working With the Harrison Estate on the Blackwing x George Harrison Notebook

The development of the George Harrison notebook and pencil was done alongside Olivia and the Harrison Estate to ensure it captured something George and his family would appreciate. 

Grant, President of Blackwing, recently had the honor of sitting down with Olivia Harrison for an interview to discuss slowing down, drawing inspiration, creative processes, and George's legacy.

Interview Transcript:

Grant: It's great to see you. It's been such an incredible time getting to know you as we brought this Blackwing tribute to George to life.

Olivia: Thank you. I really, from the first time I saw it was the Ravi Shankar edition... I know Sukanya and Anoushka pretty well, and, and I thought, how come they didn't tell me about this? This is amazing. And, that was a really cool thing to do.

Grant: As we've talked about, Alan Kozlowski was a dear friend and a mentor, and he's the one, who really put that together. So I guess, let's start with the project itself. The centerpiece of the pencil and the notebook collection is George's iconic guitar, Rocky. Can you maybe tell the story about Rocky and, what made it so special?

Olivia: You know, he and John got Strats the same day, just the same time they got these acoustics. In fact, when they got the acoustics, by the time they got home, they'd swapped guitars. John's was sold some time ago, but that was George's on the way home. His got nicked somewhere. John's got nicked, and suddenly it appeared a few years ago, that had been George's. So the one we have here was John's and George's. Funny. Anyway, then they, same thing. They got their two strats together and, I don't know, one psychedelic night George decided to get colorful. There used to be these little tubes of like enamel paint that he discovered, so he went wild on it. I think he really liked the action on it. The way he had it set up was really good for his slide guitar.

Grant: And, so, did George have any particular writing rituals or creative rituals? Maybe you could talk just a little bit about his creative process.

Olivia: I think the only time he actually set out to ever collaborate with someone, he just thought it was weird to go to work. I heard somebody ask Graham Greene this question, do you sit down... and it just comes over you? And he said, do you mean at nine o'clock every morning when I get up to write and just wait for something to happen? So George was like, it wasn't like that for him. In fact, it's a gift. And it just would come upon him. You'd see his eyes go into like staring far away and you knew something was coming. But here's a funny thing I'll show you, and this is from his homework. He's, I don't know, 14 or something like that maybe. So it's his German notebook, right? Homework. 

Grant: Oh wow... I love it.

Olivia: He was very spontaneous. That's I think the word. 

Grant: And that's been one of the best parts about this process is all the little things that you've found along the way and shared. It's been great. 

Olivia: Yeah, those little notes!

Grant: Now, I mean, a lot of people may not know that you are a very accomplished writer and, and poet. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Olivia: Emotions, I think for me. Nature, everyone writes about nature. Walt Whitman. Mary Oliver. This poetry book that I did a while back was really an autobiography I didn't wanna write. That's what inspired me to write those poems just about our life, about him, about simple things, about those guitars hanging on walls, inspired one of my poems. It was called Her or Me, he was hanging guitars on the wall, just like that one day. He was saying, guitars are like women, you know, they're different shapes. Some are blonde, some are brunette, some are like wide-bodied, some are thin, and it's just, I wondered if he loved her much more than me. That's the punchline.

Grant: Wonderful.

Olivia: Yeah. 

Grant: Is there one lyric or line of George's that... I mean, we're both writers, an aspiring writer comes up to you, an inspiring artist... Is there one line or lyric that you would point them to or lead them to for inspiration? Is there one thing that just stands out that has always meant something a little special to you? 

Olivia: "Be Here Now." Just those three words. He didn't invent them, but that song I think is very important. You know, it is important to me. "Remember, be here now. 'cause it's not like it was before. The past was, be here now," and, that is so simple. But all there is is now. And he was inspired by Baba Ram Dass, Richard Alpert. And if you take that thought, and then the next song "Run of the Mill." Which really I think moves me a lot is "everyone has choice when to and not to raise their voices. It's you that decides. How high will you leap? Will you make enough for you to reap it? Only you'll arrive at your own made end with no one but yourself to be offended. It's you that decides." And that's the thing, it's like at the end of your life, it's like, no one around you will carry the blame for you. That's like really taking responsibility for your actions and your karma.

Grant: So simple, so powerful. Just amazing. There's just one more question I wanted to ask. Our mission here at Blackwing is to try and help people slow down. So in today's fast paced world, so much tearing at our attention spans, what helps you slow down?

Olivia: Pencil to paper. I've always felt that! When you write things down, you remember them, right?

Grant: Absolutely.

Olivia: These types, it's not the same. I mean, I have a pen fetish and a pencil fetish. I have a box over here of little refills, little tiny pens. I'm like fan of little pens. And I think, a pencil because when we were kids back in the old days, you got one pencil in your class and then, it would get down to here and then you'd get a new one. That really meant something. You looked after it. That's sort of me, I like to... that's what slows me down. You can only go so fast and I take shorthand. So, if I'm not really slowing down, I can go a little faster.

Grant: I love it.

Olivia: You know that's, this is a good speed.

 Grant: I think so, too. Olivia, thank you so much for this...

Olivia: You're welcome.

Grant: ...for the conversation and the friendship and everything you do to keep George's legacy alive. Hopefully he would've appreciated this pencil and this journal that we've made in his honor.

Olivia: I can't thank you enough. Because he was always looking and, I've got him on tape... he's going, Hey, Liv, have you got a pencil? You got a piece of paper? And finally, he would get spiral bound steno books and anything, anything he could find a book to write in. Dear George, he appreciated a good pencil.

Grant: Thank you so much.

Olivia: Thank you so much. I love this. I love this notebook. I love this idea and just, I mean, I just wanna add all those little guitar chords. He would draw them out for me with little cartoons in them for songs that I wanted to learn on ukulele. And it could be "Stardust,", you know, something complicated, but he would write those little guitar chords out, which is why I thought it would be nice for.

Grant: We appreciate you sharing them so we could put 'em in the notebooks. They're included in the notebooks.

Olivia: That's great.

Grant: So cool. Well, thank you again.

Olivia: Thank you.