Fifteen years after John Lennon's murder, The Beatles member George Harrison almost faced the same fate while sleeping at his home.
The dreaded attack happened on December 30, 1999, while asleep in his home on Friar Park Estate near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. George survived the attack, but he died on November 29, 2001, following his battle with lung cancer.
How George Harrison's Lyrics Helped Him Survived the Knife Attack Revealed
George's widow, Olivia, recently spoke with BBC Radio 3 (via The Mirror) - with the episode released on Sunday, October 1 - and recalled the time they were attacked by an intruder. The suspect, Michael Abram, stabbed the singer over 40 times using a kitchen knife.
The then-33-year-old attacker was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attack.
According to Olivia, George's song lyrics protected him from the almost fatal injuries.
"He had notes in a pocket right over his heart and he had them folded," she said. "You can only fold paper so many times. He had them folded and stuck in the pocket, and it's what saved him... Gardening notes and lyrics were his passions and they saved his life."
She defended her husband and said she would have lost the chance to talk during the interview if she had not reacted at that time and decided to fight back.
Before George's death, he revealed that his late father's Buddhist practices and devotion to meditation helped him survive many things.
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George Harrison's Death
The "Fish on the Sand" singer died at a friend's home in Los Angeles, Calif., at the age of 58. Prior to his demise, he underwent surgery for his throat cancer in 1998 and received treatment for a brain tumor and lung cancer the year he died.
"He was a lovely guy and a very brave man and had a wonderful sense of humor. He is really just my baby brother," Paul McCartney said at that time.
"We will miss George for his sense of love, his sense of music and his sense of laughter," Ringo Starr added.
The latter member of The Beatles often recalls George's last words to him when he visited him while he was on his deathbed. The cancer-stricken friend asked Starr if he wanted him to fly with him to Boston after his daughter, Lee Starkey, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
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