Throughout his long career, George Harrison drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including his son.
On August 1, 1978, the late Beatles singer and his then-fiancée (and future wife) Olivia Harrison welcomed their only child, Dhani. Harrison, a Hare Krishna Hindu, named his baby after the sixth and seventh notes of the Indian music scale, “dha” and “ni.” Though The Beatles split up years before his birth, Dhani grew up around music thanks to his father’s solo career. “He’s lovely,” Harrison told PEOPLE in 1987 about his then-9-year-old son. “He’s entertaining and a pleasure to be around. He can perform ‘When We Was Fab’ on the piano.”
Harrison wrote several songs for Dhani over the years, including 1982’s “Unknown Delight.” “He was saying, ‘What should I write about? What should I write a song about?’ ” Olivia told NPR of her husband in a 2004 interview. “I said, ‘Write a song about Dhani.’ And he wrote this beautiful song which was very prescient, actually.”
Now 46, Dhani is following in Harrison’s footsteps as a musician while working to keep his dad’s legacy alive following his untimely death in November 2001.
From working as an aerodynamicist to winning a Grammy Award, here’s everything to know about George Harrison’s son.
