Paul McCartney Recalls 'Eclectic' Hitchhiking Experience With Late Beatles Bandmate George Harrison

Paul McCartney put a fond memory with his late Beatles bandmate George Harrison into a song on his forthcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which will be released on Friday, May 29.

As teenagers, McCartney and Harrison took a hitchhiking trip on the way to Wales, he told "The Rest is History" podcast on Thursday, May 14. (McCartney was 21 when The Beatles became famous.)

"We were hitchhiking down South, which is what one of the songs on our new album is about, and we got a lift from a milk float, which was electric," he told host Tom Holland. "Those were the only vehicles we knew of that were electric. It went about four miles an hour, but it was a lift, so we were quite happy."

He continued, "The driver was sitting on the right-hand side, and there was a battery in the middle. Then there was the passenger’s seat on the left-hand side. George Harrison sat on the battery. Everything’s going fine, we’re getting our lift, and suddenly, ‘ahhh!’ He jumps up, and I go, ‘what’s that? What’s wrong?’ and he had a pair of jeans with a zip on the pocket and it had connected with the battery."

McCartney went further.

"He jumps up, ‘arrgh!’ It connected with the battery and had given him a bolt," McCartney revealed. "Later, when we got to our B & B [bed and breakfast], he showed me. He had a great big zip tattooed into his bottom."

However, McCartney later learned he may have remembered it wrong.

"That was always my story, and I told it to people," he said. "Then, I met Olivia Harrison, George Harrison’s widow, quite recently, and she said ‘I love that story of you and George going down to Wales, and you sitting on the battery, and it connecting, and you got a scar on your b--.’ I said, ‘it wasn’t me, it was George!’"

He yukked, "I think it’s amazing the way memory does that. It can just morph. … And I realize, how can you have accurate history?"

Harrison died at age 58 in 2001.

The album is heavily influenced by his childhood, growing up in Liverpool, England.

"I think the character of Liverpool is a strong one with the Irish influence, coming through the war and having to be happy when bombs were falling," he said on the podcast. "There was a lot of music when I was a kid, a lot of jokes and they [my parents] kept their heads above water by laughing at the whole thing. I think that was something that found its way into the Beatles. I think it gave us a good sense of humor no matter what we were going to do, like arrive in America and have the New York press ready to make fun of us. We gave as good as we got, and that was because of our Liverpool upbringing."

Growing up during the World War II was unique.

"You were very aware of it, not the actual bombing, I think all of us were a little too young to experience that," McCartney said. "Ringo, who's the oldest, might have some memories but I don’t. You know, that feeling that the grownups had … having to laugh it off. This is a World War! But they have to carry on, they have to talk to each other. I marvel at that, because now people can get defeated by the slightest little thing, so compare that to not being defeated by bombings literally raining down on your city. You’ve got to find a way around it."

McCartney continued, "When I grew up, there was a lot of joy. I was just so glad to be out in these terrible circumstances. My uncles were all great joke tellers. I never heard any of them sitting around going, ‘oh no, life is terrible.’ There was none of that. They’d come through it, and it kind of wasn’t allowed."

During the podcast, he discussed the song "Salesman Saint," which is about his parents. His father was a salesman and his mother was a midwife.

When the family got an indoor toilet, "we thought we were really going somewhere," he shared.