What was the only subject that Monty Python's Eric Idle and Beatles guitarist George Harrison disagreed on?
Monty Python comedian Eric Idle has been remembering his late friend George Harrison, revealing they could discuss anything but they could never agree on the value of religion.
Eric Idle and his late friend George Harrison only ever disagreed on one thing - religion.
Idle, 82, first met Beatles guitarist George at a screening of Monty Python and The Holy Grail in 1975 and they shared a deep friendship that only ended when Harrison passed away from cancer in November 2001 at the age of 58.
Eric a lot of time talking with George about music, movies, art and life, and he cherished the fact that the pair could converse on anything, but the My Sweet Lord singer could never convince the comedian on the value of his Hindu faith.
Appearing on The Adam Buxton Podcast, Eric said: "The only thing we ever disagreed on was religion.
"We talked. Even on his deathbed he said to me, 'I'm OK, because I'm not going to have to go through rebirth.' I said, 'I'd give anything to be reborn.'
"We were funny about it, it wasn't a problem because we were friends, we could talk about anything. But I'm not religious, I like science. I think religion is an early attempt to describe the universe. You wonder what God was doing for the first five-and-half billion years of life on this planet. What was he doing?"
George first became interested in Hinduism after being gifted various religious texts by Indian musician Ravi Shankar in 1966 during a pilgrimage to India with his wife Pattie Boyd and was the driving force behind The Beatles trip to India in 1968.
Harrison began following Hinduism from the late '60s being associated with the Hare Krishna movement and taking up a vegetarian lifestyle and he remained committed to the religion and its practices up until his death.
Although Eric couldn't be convinced of the value of religion by George, he did respect his approach to life, which was to always remind yourself that one day you're going to die and your fame and wealth can't prevent it.
Eric said: "I remember I was going through a divorce and he cheered me up by telling me I was gonna die, that was quite good. "He put things in perspective. He would say, 'You can have all the money in the world, you can be the most famous people in the world but you're still going to have to die.' That's a very good philosophy to have and a reminder that every day can be your last. I use it quite often in comedy, remind people that you're alive, this is it, you're lucky to be in such a nice place, usually."
