Louise Harrison Interview, Part 4 of 4

Midwest Tape marketing specialist Chris Shope recently interviewed Louise Harrison, sister of Beatle George Harrison, and two-time Grammy Award-winning producer Dennis Scott about their new Grammy-nominated album, Fab Fan Memories, as well as their Help Keep Music Alive organization, George Harrison, and the Beatles.

Broken into four parts, below is the fourth and final portion of our interview. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3.

Chris: Louise, I would like to ask you a few questions about your brother George, but before I do I was wondering if you could give us a quick take on the other Beatles. What were they like when you met them? Are there any interesting anecdotes you would like to share?

Louise: When I first met them, it was at the Plaza Hotel on the Friday afternoon when they had just arrived over from Britain to do The Ed Sullivan show. And for me it was just like getting three more brothers. You know I had grown up with three brothers—George, Harry, and Peter—so it was just like having three more brothers. We just reacted that way with each other, you know, it’s just one big family.

They were all so excited because they had just arrived to that tremendous reception at the airport and all through New York, so they were buzzing from room to room in the suite there at the Plaza. They were in the presidential suite, and there were, I think, three different rooms and everything. They all had their TV sets on in their own rooms, and they were running from room to room because all of the different networks were covering the arrival. And they would be saying, “Hey, look what they’re saying about us here.” And then somebody would say, “Hey, look what they’re saying about us here.” And so all of the different coverage of their arrival was there [on TV] and we were running from room to room madly watching what was going on outside and watching the recording of them coming into town.

So, we just all enjoyed each other, and they knew I didn’t have any agenda. I wasn’t a stalker; I wasn’t a fan, or a manipulator, or a predator—which they didn’t even know existed at that point. All of that came later, the manipulators and the predators. But at that time it was just a lot of fun because it was like having three more brothers.

Chris: Was that the instance when you had to show a photograph to get in?

Louise: That’s right, yeah. George had left word at the front desk when I was checking in to come on up to their room. But he didn’t realize there were guards at the end of the corridor stopping everybody and asking them if their name was on the list. So he just told me to come up, and he didn’t know there was such a thing as a list to be on. So, of course, I wasn’t on the list. But as it turned out I had that Polaroid picture of myself and George and my brother Peter. George was holding my daughter in his arms; she was about three years old at the time.

Unfortunately that Polaroid picture, I gave it to the people at Capitol Records and they made copies of it, and I still have a note from Bill Turner from Capitol saying, “I’ll get that picture back to you as soon as possible.” Well, that was written forty years ago and I still haven’t gotten the picture back. And I had somebody from EMI search through all of their archives trying to find it, and they can’t. But somebody’s probably selling it on the Internet.

Chris: It’s possible, but that’s probably the most unique access pass I’ve ever heard of.

Louise: Yeah, that’s right.

Dennis: I’m glad you had that Louise. It would be a very different story otherwise. Were you backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show when that was going on?

Louise: Well, I was in the audience on the Sunday night one. You see they taped one in the afternoon on Sunday, but it was actually shown on the third week. They did the second one from the Deauville in Miami, but the third week they actually aired the one that had been taped on the afternoon of that Sunday.

And it’s funny because on the first and the third show, George still has a temperature of 102 and that really, really bad strep throat, and he looks really ill. But during the second performance from the Deauville he had recovered and he was okay. He was bouncy and his eyes were sparkling. Most people don’t know. I tell them if you watch all three shows, notice on the first and the third one he’s ill, and in the second one he’s not. It is because that third one was actually recorded before that first two. So that’s one thing that isn’t generally known.

Dennis: I’ve watched those clips a number of times and, especially in view of what you just said, I have to give him [George] a lot of credit because. For example, when he does the solo to “Till There Was You,” the camera comes on him and he just beams a smile that goes across the entire screen. It’s so engaging, and he’s not even feeling well. He was a trooper, even in those days.

Louise: Well that’s kind of the way our parents raised us. No matter what’s happening, if you have a job to do, you do it to the very best of your ability. That was very much a part of how he behaved.

Chris: The show must go on. About your brother George, Tom Petty in a September Rolling Stone article said that George was anything but quiet. He said that he was very fun to hang out with.

Louise: Exactly. That was just because he had that strep throat that weekend and the doctor advised him to try to not say very much because his throat was still hurting. That’s why he got dubbed the quiet Beatle, but we’ve always had a joke about that. He’s no quieter than I am!

Chris: That’s fantastic! The same article also said that George was fond of the phrase “create and preserve the image of your choice,” which I find beautiful. What did that phrase mean to George and how did it affect his life?

Louise: Well, you know, he was being, what’s the word, facetious. Because of all of the images that people created about them, and the false ideas that people had about them. For instance, the quiet one and all that. He was just being sarcastic really by saying that.

One of the other things that he used to have a lot of fun with, when people would ask him questions is that he would say “well, I don’t really know. I’m the quiet one. I don’t have much to say. I’m the quiet one.” So he would kind of fall back on that myth in order to get out of having to answer nonsensical questions.

Chris: It seems like a lot of these experiences may have sent George down the road of a more inward journey.

Louise: Oh yeah, yeah. After all that fame and fortune and everything, he realized how hollow a lot of it is. They discovered very early that the money doesn’t make you happy. It just makes you a target, you know. Then there were all of the people that came into their lives just wanting to get a hold of the money. That was kind of sickening for them but you know they had to kind of put up with it. That was all part of the job, I suppose.

Chris: Is that part of what led George to India?

Louise: Oh yes. Because he realized that all the money in the world wasn’t going to make you happy. You have to have inner peace in order to be able to survive in that cauldron that they were in the midst of. They were in like a boiling cauldron of all the promotion all the time, as far as the discomfort level of their lives, and so in order to try and find peace, they had to try to find “what’s it really all about.” You know, “why are we in this crazy position?” And they were able to gradually start to understand that the message that they were delivering was a very, very vital and important thing for the rest of the people on the planet.

Chris: Indeed, they could say things that mattered from their high perch.

Louise: Yeah exactly, and people would listen. They started to realize that they had this responsibility.

Chris: Is that when George became good friends with Ravi Shankar and did the Concert for Bangladesh? Reading back on it, it was a very positive thing to do.

Louise: Exactly. They started quite a trend there. And I mean what we’re going to be doing with Help Keep Music Alive is a continuation of that trend. We’re not in this to glorify ourselves or make ourselves millionaires. We’re in it to help other people and that was very, very much in the spirit of what the Beatles were all about.

Chris: It sounds like the Concert [for Bangladesh] was a progression.

Louise: Oh yes.

Chris: What’s your favorite song that George wrote?

Louise: Oh golly, probably a couple dozen of them. But off the top of my head I would say maybe “Cheer Down.”

Chris: That’s a good one.

Louise: He would kind of take that attitude. To me cheer down is the same thing as curb your enthusiasm. You know, that was kind of how he used to react to me, because I would always be bouncing up and down with enthusiasm, and he’d kind of look at me like “cheer down, Lou. Calm down.” So I’ve always liked that song because I feel like there was a bit of a thought towards my being in that song.

Chris: It sounds like he had a great sense of humor like you do.

Louise: Absolutely. When you live in Liverpool you’ve got to have a sense of humor because the first thing you learn is how to make fun of yourself. You know I can remember doing a TV show—I don’t know whether it was Larry King or one of those others—but they have a dressing room and they have people there that come and put makeup on you. I said, “look the best thing you can do to make me look better is put a bag over my head.”

Chris: Self-deprecation is good humor, I find.

Louise: Oh yeah, that’s what we learned right from the get-go in Liverpool.

Chris: So Dennis, what’s your favorite song that George wrote?

Dennis: I hate to pick just one because I do like so many of them, but I guess I gravitate towards one that is one of his most beloved and popular ones, which is “Here Comes the Sun.” I never get tired of hearing it, and now that Cirque de Soleil came out with the Love show, we’re able to hear some of the other versions of that song. It reintroduced me to that material and I just love it even more. I do like some of his songs that were maybe not single hits, things like "If I Needed Someone," such a great song.

Louise: Yeah, yeah.

Dennis: And "Taxman" is not only a great rocker, but it’s also a pretty insightful song about the economic times and some of the tax injustices.

Louise: Back then, yeah. That’s one thing that tickles me now about this whole thing about “well, we can’t raise taxes on the millionaires.” Well, they’re only paying 35%, when the Beatles were millionaires they were paying 96%. America’s millionaires should take that one and suck it down.

Chris: That’s perspective right there.

Louise: Exactly.

Dennis: Well, what impresses me is when he wrote that he was young, but had a mature and insightful lyric, which he shared with everyone.

Chris: I’m sure that the spotlight aged them all pretty quickly to the ways of the world.

Louise: That’s right, yeah.

Dennis: Especially when they were forced to become businessmen after Brian Epstein died. I’m sure, from what I understand, they didn’t relish the thought of that. They were creative people.

Louise: Well, they still kept on getting ripped off. That was not their primary interest, but when they realized how much they were being ripped off, they started trying to look into it and see if they couldn’t solve a few problems. As a matter of fact, I remember Peter Noone—you know Herman’s Hermits—I remember him telling me that when he first started out, he was only about 16, the Beatles had told him about some of the pitfalls of the business world, and they told him some of the things to watch out for. And he said due to their advice, he was able to actually hold on to a lot more of his income than the Beatles were able to because he was looking into the things that the Beatles had told him about and getting those things taken care of.

Chris: As you said on the album [Fab Fan Memories], “for the Beatles it was all about the music.” All the rest of it was for someone else.

Louise: Exactly.

Chris: That’s what I love about music in general, like with “Here Comes the Sun,” when I hear it I think back to when I was 16. I had a convertible, driving down the road with the wind in my hair. I love music’s power to bring back memories and transport you to places.

Louise: Exactly.

Dennis: That’s very observant. I’m sure Louise and the [Liverpool] Legends experience, as do I with my group the WannaBeatles, the young faces in the audience. These kids, who are five or six or seven years old, know the lyrics to all these songs. I am constantly amazed by that.

Louise: Yeah, yeah. It’s still resonating with the youngsters coming up. There’s no doubt about that.

Chris: You can see in their eyes those kinds of memories being created.

Louise: Yeah, yeah.

Dennis: Exactly.

Chris: It’s a beautiful thing. Well, that’s all of the questions we have for you. This has been an incredible conversation and again we really appreciate it.

Dennis: Thank you Chris.

Louise: Thank you. The more people we can reach, the more people we can help.

Thanks for reading our four-part interview with Louise Harrison and Dennis Scott. To learn more about Louise's organization, Help Keep Music Alive, by visiting their website or Facebook page. You can also shop Fab Fan Memories and Beatles music and DVDs on www.midwesttapes.com.

>>Read part one now.
>>Read part two now.
>>Read part three now.

Louise Harrison Interview, Part 3 of 4

Midwest Tape marketing specialist Chris Shope recently interviewed Louise Harrison, sister of Beatle George Harrison, and two-time Grammy Award-winning producer Dennis Scott about their new Grammy-nominated album, Fab Fan Memories, as well as their Help Keep Music Alive organization, George Harrison, and the Beatles.

Broken into four parts, below is the third portion of our interview. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2.

Chris: The world is getting smaller. Technology is making Do-It-Yourself so much easier for talented musicians. All these people that wouldn’t have connections otherwise, that wouldn’t be able to be heard. It would have been interesting to see how the Beatles would have come up in a world like today.

Louise: Yeah, well, it would be rather different.

Dennis: I’m sure Louise agrees that it was the coming together of so many different elements that made the Beatles what they were. They were immersed in all these sounds from America that were coming over with the servicemen landing in Liverpool, and they just absorbed it like sponges. And when they put it out, it became their own signature way of making music. The rest is history.

Chris: In my research, I didn’t realize that the Beatles had gotten so immensely popular in Great Britain before anyone had even heard of them in the United States.

Louise: That’s true. They were number one. They had their first album put out, which in England was called Please Please Me, and it was number one. It stayed at number one for about twelve months until their second album [With the Beatles] came out and knocked it down to number two.

So, well that was the thing you know, I lived over here from the beginning of March 1963, and I was running around all the radio stations that I could with the singles that my mum was sending me. I was saying “hey, this is my kid brother’s band, and they’re number one in England, and you should be playing them.” I was really trying like crazy to get them some airplay in this country. And then eventually it happened.

Chris: You laid the groundwork. It must have been wonderful to finally hear every radio station playing it.

Louise: Oh yeah, it was.

Dennis: Louise, was there a lot of resistance at first from the radio stations? Were they ambivalent at first or…?

Louise: Well, I discovered later it wasn’t so much that there was ambivalence, so much as back in those days there was what was called Payola. It was more that the DJs and the Program Directors back then were accustomed to being given across their palms with silver, kind of idea, before they actually accepted something. So this was why I, when I found out all of this stuff was going on, I let Brian [Epstein] know that we needed to have a major record label behind us, somebody that had some clout in order to get anywhere with the radio stations. And of course back then there were about 6,000 independent radio stations, I know there’s more than that now, but of course there’s a different way of distributing now.

Dennis: Those were the days.

Chris: As you may know Midwest Tape is a vendor of media products and services to public libraries. What is your favorite part of your local library?

Louise: When I was a kid in Liverpool, I was six years old when I joined the library. I’d be there two or three times a week getting out all of those Andrew Lang fairy tales, back in those days. You know because I was a little girl, looking for the happily ever after and princes and princesses and everything.

But more recently the kinds of things I’m into are things like quantum physics. I have a tremendous library—in my own bedroom, in fact. I can’t even remember half of the things. Things about the planet, about the environment, again quantum physics and people like Senator Paul Simon. He gave me some of his books. Tom Haden, he gave me one of his books. Actually a lot of the books that I have were given to me by the authors. People like Al Gore, and Joshua Greene who wrote a book about my brother. So I have a very, very varied library at home. I don’t read fiction or spy stories or horror stories or anything like that, it’s mostly I would say non-fiction, and possibly slightly a little intellectual stuff.

Chris: How about you, Dennis? What do you like to read?

Dennis: Well, I’m still going through my Archie comic book collection. Like Louise, it’s very difficult to find time to read, but of course, my leanings are towards music-oriented publications and books. I like the histories and stories about artists I’m impressed by. I have a pretty good collection now of books about the Beatles.

And we have a wonderful public library in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s not that old; it was rebuilt a couple of years ago. And aside from the collections of books, they have a concert series and a courtyard square where I’ve had a chance to play with my tribute band [the WannaBeatles]. And they also have world-class puppet and marionette shows. It’s just a treasure to go there.

Chris: Excellent.

Louise: I too, of course, have all of the books that people have written about the Beatles. They mostly send them to me. I haven’t really read many of them because too many of them are fabricated from my point of view. That’s one of the reasons why I’m writing my own book—to give a little bit of truth to all of the myths that are out there.

Chris: Definitely. You’re in an extremely unique position to tell it the way it is.

Louise: And people have been saying to me for years, “isn’t it about time for you to write a book about the Beatles?” For years I’ve resisted but finally I said okay. Enough is enough with all of the garbage that’s out there. That’s what I was working on when you called me.

Chris: Excellent. Is there any music you are into these days, aside from the Beatles, of course?

Dennis: You mean there’s something else other than the Beatles? (sarcasm)

Chris: Any new favorite bands?

Louise: My favorite bands in the ‘60s were the Moody Blues, the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, and that was about it. Those were the ones that I liked.

Dennis: I have to agree with Louise 100 percent— the Beach Boys. Of course, the Beatles and the Beach Boys influenced each other.

Louise: Yes, yeah. That’s one of the stories I’m telling in my book about when I was invited to the memorial for Carl Wilson in California, you know with the Beach Boys.

Dennis: Believe it or not, I stay abreast of children’s recordings because the other hat that I wear is as a producer and writer of children’s material. I’ve worked with Sesame Street and Disney and folks like that, so I really have to keep on top of what’s going out there. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the children’s music is becoming much more sophisticated at an earlier age. While in my heart I wish things would stay a little more sedate, the kids are becoming more attuned to rap and other kinds of music at an earlier age. So I do have to keep on top of contemporary music a little bit.

Chris: We should have another conversation sometime about children’s music because our customers enjoy the children’s content that we provide for them.

Dennis: Definitely. Let’s talk. Check out that Mr. Rogers album, unless you already have. It’s kind of neat because it features artists we all know and love like Roberta Flack and BJ Thomas doing their versions of songs written by Fred Rogers.

Chris: Alright. He was from the Cleveland area.

Dennis: Actually Pittsburgh.

Chris: Pittsburgh, that’s what it was. I used to work with a guy who was family friends with him.

Louise: I can remember when my grandchildren were babies. They’re now 21 and 23, but when they were babies we used to sit and watch that every morning. They really loved Mr. Rogers.

Chris: I did, too. So do you guys watch any movies? Anything you like?

Louise: I tend to watch more what’s going on in the news, and again things like [National] Geographic and stuff like that. That is the kind of thing that would appeal to me. So I’m not really into current movies. I guess I’m kind of a fuddy-duddy when it comes to what’s going on in pop culture.

Chris: That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Dennis: Well I would love to go to movies more often because I have an extreme love affair with buttered popcorn.

Louise: I can’t stand that stuff.

Dennis: I’m a popcorn fan. But I have an eleven year old son who, believe it or not, is not a movie-goer. So we don’t get to go to the movies as often as I would like and when we do go, I think the top of the movie list is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We’ve been to that three times. So, I don’t get to see as many adult movies as I would like, but that’s probably a good thing anyway.

Louise: Watch out when you say adult movies, Dennis. That has a different connotation.

Chris: Yeah, can I quote you on that Dennis?

Louise: That’s not what you mean is it?

Dennis: No that was not what I meant. (laughing)

This has been part three of our four-part interview with Louise Harrison and Dennis Scott. Be sure to visit News & Views Thursday to read the fourth and final part of our interview.

In the meantime, shop Fab Fan Memories and Beatles music and DVDs. You can also learn more about Louise's organization, Help Keep Music Alive, by visiting their website or Facebook page.

>>Read part one now.
>>Read part two now.

Louise Harrison Interview, Part 2 of 4

Midwest Tape marketing specialist Chris Shope recently interviewed Louise Harrison, sister of Beatle George Harrison, and two-time Grammy Award-winning producer Dennis Scott about their new Grammy-nominated album, Fab Fan Memories, as well as their Help Keep Music Alive organization, George Harrison, and the Beatles.

Broken into four parts, below is the second portion of our interview. Click here for Part 1.

Chris: What are some of your favorite memories on the [Fab Fan Memories] album?

Louise: Well, I don’t know. I can’t be very specific at this time because it’s been a while since I’ve listened to it, and I don’t remember all of the specifics. But I know throughout my life people will come up to me and whisper in my ear little stories about their own personal experience of the Beatles—far beyond the ones that are actually on the album. I’ve been told thousands of stories by Beatles fans and to me it’s just always very, very inspiring and very gratifying to hear the positive influence that the Beatles have had on people’s lives.

Dennis: Well, I can add to that by saying that in the editing process of putting the album together I did have opportunity to hear those stories over and over again. Some of them had to be edited down because they went on for quite some time. And I do have some of my favorites. I’m just amazed and touched by what some people have gone through to express their love, or to make a connection to the Beatles.

I love the story about the girl who managed to find the hotel room that the Beatles stayed in, and she brought an empty jar and she told the chamber maid "I’m not here to take anything. I just want a jar of air." She took a big jar, scooped it up, and put the cap on it. I mean that was a great story. 

And then there’s a great story that actually intersected a fan’s life with Louise where this girl in Massachusetts, she was a junior reporter, she was still in high school, not even high school, and she and her friend got her editor to get them press passes, and she worked her way into a press conference where the Beatles were —I want to say in Boston. And because they were such devoted fans, they knew what Louise looked like and they spotted her and befriended her, and Louise was kind to them. That allowed them to meet the press manager who was there, and they got to go into the interview. I mean the things that people have gone through to get in there is just astounding. I wish I had some of the nerve that they did.

Chris: Sometimes it just takes twenty seconds of crazy courage, and doors open for you.

Dennis: Also, when you don’t know it’s impossible, you’re free to try and do it, I think.

Louise: Absolutely. I know my dad always used to say to me "don’t ever give up." So I’ve always liked that attitude, and when I’ve met people who’ve had that attitude, I’ve been willing to help them.

Dennis: Well, then there’s the story of the girl who was trying to get to the Beatles concert, but she and her family had gone out into the water on Long Island Sound for a sail when they ran out of wind and they couldn’t find their way back. She’s freaking out, saying "I’ve got to get to dry land and get to this concert." 

They ended up banking the boat on the shore, randomly, and she had to run like two miles across the seashells and cut up her feet to get there but she did make it to the concert. That’s devotion isn’t it? 

In fact, here’s what helped prompt the making of this album. In Nashville, as in so many other cities, they have a Beatles meet-up group. And I’ve become a member of that and attended some of the meetings, and usually when there’s a new member, they will get up and introduce themselves and say a little bit of why they are fans of the Beatles. As people were talking and telling their edited down stories, I thought this is just too good to be true. These are all little treasures and I wondered if anyone had done an album of this sort. Upon further research, I found out that nobody had. I said, "well, this is just an album that has to be made."

Chris: It makes for great, great audio.

Louise: Well, everybody I’ve sent it to so far really is enjoying it.

Dennis: It’s just very gratifying because when you start out, at least as a producer, I thought "‘well, I think it’s a good idea, but will everybody think it’s a good idea? Is it just good in my head, or is it really as good as I think it is? Conceptually anyway."

It just really feels good to know we were on the right track. Not only because the fans appreciate it, but I think in some ways it’s a little piece of the historical puzzle that hasn't been told in quite the same way that other documentaries have. 

Chris: You’re continuing the conversation.

Louise: Exactly, the thing that I like about [the album] is that it’s not one of the glitzy things that have been put out. There’s been a lot of glitzy, high profile expensive stuff put out about the Beatles, and this is just something down to earth and real and not Vegas-glitz. This is the more normal stuff, which is far more real.

Chris: Yes, it’s about the people. There are the fans, and the meet-up groups, and both of you work with Beatles cover bands. Louise, you work with the Liverpool Legends over there in Branson. How often do they perform?

Louise: Well, we were doing five nights a week in Branson, but the season is over now, so we’ve started this Help Keep Music Alive program to raise funds for high schools and colleges all across the country, for their music departments. We’ve now just done the fourth show on that program. We’ve done one in Moline, one in Davenport, and now two in Chicago. 

I have a board of directors and have formed a non-profit organization. We’re just getting ready to blast off with this program, and I’m hoping that more people hear about it. We have our website up now, and we will also have a dotcom. We are hoping that people will go to the website. And if they are music directors at a high school or college, and they would like for us to come and perform there and incorporate their music students into our concerts, we hope they let us know. That is what we've been doing. 

We had 172 students at one concert behind the band [the Liverpool Legends] on risers playing all of their instruments, and it’s just absolutely fabulous. There’s a lot of travel involved and everything but it’s worthwhile because the atmosphere in these auditoriums, while they’re doing the shows, is just so magical. One of the kids the other night came up to the guy who plays my brother in the band, he was about 14 or 15, and he said to him "you know this is something I’m going to be able to tell my grandchildren about." Things like that make it so worthwhile. 

Chris: It sounds like this organization has wonderful goals. This is definitely something people need to hear about.

Louise: Let’s face it: the whole thing is networking and getting the word out. We don’t have money to be able to do lots of advertising, and even if we had the money to do advertising, we would rather give it to the schools anyway. The more we can get the word out by word-of-mouth, the better. 

Also, I just had a wonderful, wonderful break because the inspiration for this [Help Keep Music Alive] came from a PSA George had done in conjunction with Mr. Holland’s Opus, the movie. He had done a PSA urging people to help keep music alive in schools, to help fund the music departments, and so Mr. Holland’s Opus' people, who actually own that tape, have just now given me permission to use whatever part of the tape I want on our website. So I’ve got my own brother saying what we’re doing.

Dennis: I’m so glad that you work with libraries, Chris, because it seems like [our album] is such a good fit. It’s odd because the product feels like an Audiobook to me, although there isn't the reading aspect of it. But who knows, maybe that could be created and added on.

Chris: That’s true, it’s possible.

Louise: Well I’m working on my book at the moment, and I intend to make that into an audiobook as well.

Dennis: I know a good recording studio in Nashville, Louise.

Louise: I’m going to need somewhere to do it.

Dennis: Wow, that would be fun.

Chris: Dennis, you have your own recording company in Nashville?

Dennis: I do. I’m originally from New York, but I moved to Nashville about twenty years ago and really enjoy the creative element there. It’s such a community of musicians and artists and producers.

Chris: Researching music here at Midwest Tape, we have seen that Nashville is definitely a hub of activity for the music industry, and not just Country Music either.

Louise: I know a lot of people there in Nashville, musicians. There’s a guy called Gary Nicholson; he writes under the name of Whitey Johnson, I think, and then another friend I just met recently, Harry Stinson, who plays with the Marty Stuart Band. So, I have a lot of good friends there in Nashville.

Chris: Honestly, I’d love to go to Nashville and see the life-size replica of the Parthenon.

Louise: Yeah (laughs).

Dennis: Well, that’s only about fifteen minutes from where I live, we would be glad to have you. I’m lucky that I can do what I do from almost anywhere these days. But Nashville has such a great talent pool so there’s really no reason why I can’t live in a town where you can raise your family, but you can also park your car.

Louise: Yeah, yeah. When I lived in New York I used to have to send my car to New Jersey, to some friends over there, to have a garage for it.

This has been part two of our four-part interview with Louise Harrison and Dennis Scott. Be sure to visit News & Views next Tuesday to read part three of our interview.

In the meantime, shop Fab Fan Memories and Beatles music and DVDs. You can also learn more about Louise's organization, Help Keep Music Alive, by visiting their website or Facebook page.

>>Read part one now.