THE Q&A: PATTIE BOYD, MUSE, PHOTOGRAPHER

She married one of the Beatles, divorced him, married Eric Clapton, hung out with the Rolling Stones, drank with the Who, toured with Cream. Pattie Boyd has some stories. Like other Beatles plus-ones early on, she kept to the background. She occupied herself by taking Polaroid pictures, serendipitously documenting one of the most important eras of music history (her photos can be seen on her website).

After years of struggling with her past—the broken marriages and knock-on effects of a rock‘n’roll lifestyle—Boyd was able to write about her experiences. Her biography, "Wonderful Today", which debuted at the top of the New York Times best-seller list in 2007, begins in Kenya, where she spent her early childhood. She then recounts her modelling career in London, her time with the Beatles and her role in inspiring such songs as “Something”, “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight”. Lately Boyd has devoted herself to photography. "Through the Eyes of a Muse", a collection of personal photos from her years with George Harrison and Clapton, recently finished making a grand multi-year tour through America, Canada, Britain and Australia.

In a conversation with More Intelligent Life, Pattie Boyd spoke about her past and the way photography helped her heal.

More Intelligent Life: What convinced you to dig up the past and sort through your memories to put together "Through the Eyes of a Muse"?

Pattie Boyd: One day a friend of mine asked me if I had any photographs from my past because he was thinking of putting together an exhibition of English photographers in San Francisco. I was a bit reluctant at first to sort through the photographs, but in the end I didn’t realise I had quite so many that were interesting. I was quite pleased that I found as many as I did.

MIL: What do you hope people will get out of seeing these photographs?

PB: Most of the photographs are moments captured in time. It’s history. I was lucky and fortunate enough to be in a position where I could take photographs of these well-known people simply because they trusted me and we were friends. What people might feel [when they see these photographs] is some sort of nostalgia for their youth. Like when you hear a record you haven’t heard since you were young, and it takes you back. I think photography does the same thing.

MIL: What has photography meant to you throughout your life? Has it come to mean something deeper?

PB: It was a hobby to begin with. It wasn’t until I realised that I could actually take nice photographs that I started to become passionate about it. I then got a few jobs working for magazines in London and I would get terribly excited and intense about doing a job and taking photographs and looking through the lens to capture something amazing.

MIL: You released "Wonderful Today", your autobiography, in 2007. Why did you feel it was important to share your story?

PB: This was also to do with photography. When I had my first exhibition I was very nervous, and for many reasons it was difficult for me to look at the photographs from my past because I knew they would bring back memories, both happy and unhappy. I was also unsure of how they would be received. Would people think I was just taking advantage of the fact that I was married to both George Harrison and Eric Clapton? But what I found was that people were really happy to see these photographs and they thanked me for exhibiting them. I realised that it was a good time to write a book about the whole thing. I had been asked over the years by various publishers to write a book and I had always said no. I actually never thought that I would. But because of the success of the exhibition I thought that the time was right. It was difficult to write about my experiences, but it was also quite indulgent. It’s not often we can spend that much time thinking about ourselves and our lives. It was therapeutic as well.

MIL: You met George Harrison while the Beatles were filming "A Hard Day’s Night" (pictured above). You have admitted you didn’t know much about the Beatles before then. How much of your attraction to Harrison back then was based on the fact that he was part of one of the biggest musical groups of the time?

PB: I wasn’t really terribly familiar with the Beatles when I met George. They were just emerging. They certainly weren’t as big as they became later on. I just knew them as a pop group and that’s all. I was keener on George as a man and a person, as opposed to someone in a band.

MIL: Was it hard to keep a relationship going with someone who was in such high demand and always had a chaperone (the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein)?

PB: Brian was there on our first date yes, but that was actually very nice. George and I were very young when we met, 19 and 20, and Brian was the one who suggested we go to a club that he was a member of, and he came with us, and it was very nice of him. In fact, I was actually quite glad because George and I were both very shy people and it was really nice to have someone there who was quite chatty. Gradually we got to know each other better. Brian was very influential in the Beatles’ lives, and they really regarded him as an older brother or uncle; they respected him tremendously.

MIL: Throughout the breakdown of your marriage to Harrison and your involvement with and eventual marriage to Eric Clapton, did it ever bother you that the two remained very good friends?

PB: I must say that occasionally it did make me feel really nervous, because I thought: well, where am I in this situation? I was George’s wife and then I was Eric’s wife and the two of them were still really good friends. On the other hand I was glad that they were friends in a way; I’d much rather that than see the two of them break up—they had a very special friendship. They were both great guitarists and they loved playing together and being creative. I’m glad that the creative energy between the two of them wasn’t broken up by our personal lives.

MIL: Can you give us some insight into the respective songwriting techniques of Harrison and Clapton?

PB: Both of them would normally play guitar quite often during the day. Musically, they were looking to find a riff, a melody. Once they had that, they’d put the lyrics on top of that.

MIL: Clapton released his autobiography not long after "Wonderful Today". How did you feel reading his account of the way things happened?

PB: I didn’t realise that Eric was as unhappy as he believed [himself] to be in his book. I really thought that he was happier than he claimed to have been. I knew he was upset about being abandoned by his mother, but I didn’t realise it went as deeply as it obviously did.

MIL: In his autobiography, Clapton made particular mention of your description of a ‘guitar duel’ between himself and Harrison—what really happened that night?

PB: John Hurt, an actor and friend of ours, came over one night. So there we were—John, Eric, George and me—and as normal, George and Eric started playing guitar. But for some reason they were both playing amazingly. John Hurt, being an actor and having a very theatrical in manner, described it in his autobiography as feeling like both George and Eric were on stage together performing. It did feel as if they were trying to outdo each other, but on the other hand this is what guitarists do. It’s always up to interpretation of course, but this is how I felt at the time.

MIL: How does it feel knowing you’ve inspired some of the greatest songs written by both the musicians you married? Were there any disadvantages to being a muse?

PB: I can’t think of any disadvantages. Once a song is written for you, or about you, then that is it. Years ago, I remember feeling very flattered. With time, these songs have become even more iconic. I always feel really thrilled and happy when I hear these songs. Enough years have gone by for me not to get upset when I hear them.

MIL: In your autobiography you hint that you never actually wanted to leave Harrison for Clapton, but felt you had to because of the disintegration of the relationship. Do you have any regrets about leaving?

PB: I really didn’t want to leave George, but circumstances were leading us apart. I was a firm believer that if you get married, then that should be it. But it’s sadly not always the case; sometimes people can’t remain together for whatever reason. I don’t know about regrets. It’s difficult to look back and think about regrets. Sometimes I think I do, sometimes I think that it was meant to be that we weren’t to remain together. But who knows?

MIL: Paint us a picture of your life among the Beatles. What were the boys like personally? How did they feel about their fame?

PB: It was great fun to hang around the Beatles. They had amazingly fast minds, and they were incredibly amusing and funny and witty. They were great. There was a very high energy surrounding them.

MIL: Why do you think the Beatles went their separate ways?

PB: I think they split up because their time together came to a natural end. They had spent many intense hours and years together and it was a natural time for them to split up. Towards the end they began to get very cross and angry with each other.

MIL: Did you crave a normal life after your years married to Harrison and Clapton?

PB: I definitely craved a normal life. I wanted to know and experience what other people do. My life had become very hectic. My hours were very different to other people’s hours. I just thought it would be nice to have a taste of a different sort of life. I started seeing someone that was very sweet and I started having a relatively normal life.

MIL: What do you think of new generations discovering the music of Harrison and the Beatles through platforms like The Beatles: Rock Band video game?

PB: I think it’s absolutely fantastic. It means their music is still as powerful and inspiring now as it was back then. Hopefully it drives people to fall in love with their music all over again.

~ LAURA PARKER