The George Harrison Memorial Tree, a pine tree that was planted near California's Griffith Observatory in 2004 in honor of the late Beatles guitarist, has been killed, ironically, by beetles and will need to be replanted.
Los Angeles city councilman
Tom LaBonge confirmed to the Los Angeles Times this week that the more than 10-foot-tall tree has been decimated by beetles.
"Except for the loss of tree life, Harrison likely would have been amused at the irony," wrote Randy Lewis for "Pop & Hiss," the Times' music blog. "He once said his biggest break in life was getting into the Beatles; his second biggest was getting out."
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
"The sapling went in, unobtrusively, near the observatory with a small plaque at the base to commemorate the former Beatle, who died in 2001, because he spent his final days in Los Angeles and because he was an avid gardener for much of his adult life," Lewis continued.
Harrison died of lung cancer on Nov. 29, 2001, in Los Angeles.
He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — as a member of The Beatles in 1988 and as an individual performer in 2004.
Along with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr, Harrison and The Beatles became one of the world's most popular and critically acclaimed bands of the 1960s until their breakup in 1970.
Even though he was often called the "Quiet Beatle," the Liverpool, England, native wrote some of the band's best-known songs, such as "If I Needed Someone," "Taxman," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something," "Here Comes the Sun," and "I Me Mine."
Harrison's Hall of Fame biography said that the star was never comfortable with the intense spotlight and fame of The Beatles.
"We met everyone in the world and never had a moment’s peace," Harrison was quoted as saying, according to the biography. He would go on to say in 1969 that, "They used us as an excuse to go mad, the world did, and then blamed it on us."
Urgent: Assess Your Heart Attack Risk in Minutes. Click Here.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.