The Time George Harrison and Eric Clapton Had a Guitar Duel Over Pattie Boyd

Love can move us in mysterious ways. As the saying goes, only fools fall in love. But, what comes first the foolery or the love? In our experience, it’s the latter that sends us into a dizzying tail spin, making us act against our better judgement. Not even famous rock stars are immune to love’s effects. If you need proof of that, revisit the time George Harrison and Eric Clapton had a guitar duel over Pattie Boyd, below.

[RELATED: Why George Harrison Wanted Eric Clapton on This Iconic Beatles Track (And How They Made It Sound More Beatle-y)]

The Time George Harrison and Eric Clapton Had a Guitar Duel Over Patti Boyd

Harrison and Clapton started their relationship as friends and musical colleagues. That friendship shifted when Clapton began to have eyes for Harrison’s partner, Boyd. His infatuation for her can be felt in the caustic and blushing “Layla.” The eruption of emotion in that track makes it very clear that Clapton was head over heals for Boyd.

Clapton eventually won Boyd and the two rockers worked out their differences. Though Harrison and Clapton remained friends until the Beatle’s death, there were moments when their relationship was strained. Boyd once talked about the time the musicians let their love get the best of them.

As the story goes, Boyd once watched Harrison and Clapton have a pseudo guitar duel for her honor. While that seems like a pretty awkward thing to watch, Boyd spoke about it like witnessing two masterful artists at work.

The supposed duel went down at actor John Hurt’s house. As Boyd recalled, “John Hurt, being an actor and seeing everything as theatre, wrote about it in his memoir,” Boyd once said. “John was at the house one day when Eric turned up and said to George: ‘Try this one out.’ They were playing guitars and, as John said, it was a guitar duel.”

“Musicians communicate through their instrument of choice and they understand each other through music – so any annoyance, anger and irritation from George only really came out when he was playing guitar with Eric,” she continued.

We can imagine how passionate both artists were with matters of the heart at the core of their playing. Though we don’t have footage of that fateful moment to look back on, we can see how their relationship resolved through Clapton’s tribute performance in the wake of Harrison’s death. Revisit that performance, below.

(Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)