The singer-songwriter recalled his Beatles bandmate having “a great big zip tattooed into his bum” after the incident.

Paul McCartney says George Harrison’s butt once got electrocuted by a battery while they were hitchhiking

The singer-songwriter recalled his Beatles bandmate having "a great big zip tattooed into his bum" after the incident.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

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May 15, 2026 2:14 p.m. ET

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Paul McCartney and George Harrison in 1964. Credit:

- Paul McCartney is remembering the time George Harrison got electrocuted on the butt by a battery while they were hitchhiking together.

- The "Maybe I'm Amazed" singer said the incident occurred while they were hitching a ride on a milk float.

- "When we got to our B&B, he showed me," McCartney recalled. "He had a great big zip tattooed into his bum,"

Paul McCartney is looking back at a time when George Harrison was twisting and shouting for all the wrong reasons.

The "Yesterday" singer recently detailed a hilarious — and undoubtedly painful — incident in which his fellow Beatles bandmate got zapped on the butt by a battery while they were hitching a ride on a milk float.

McCartney and Harrison went on several hitchhiking expeditions together in their early years and, as the former explained on a recent episode of *The Rest Is History *podcast, they were headed south when the shocking incident occurred.

Paul McCartney and George Harrison perform.

Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty

"We got a lift from a milk float, which was electric. Those were the only vehicles we knew that were electric," McCartney recalled. "Went about four miles an hour, but it was a lift, so we were quite happy."

He added that Harrison chose to sit on the vehicle's battery, which was located in between the driver and passenger seats.

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"We're getting our lift and then suddenly *bang*! And he jumps up," McCartney said. "I go, 'What's that? What's wrong?' And he had a pair of jeans with a zip on the back pocket, and it had connected with the two points."

The Grammy-winning artist recalled that Harrison proceeded to leap into the air and shout, "Oh bloody hell!"

"[The zip] connected up and the battery had given him a bolt," McCartney said. "Later, when we got to our B&B, he showed me. Yeah, he had a great big zip tattooed into his bum."

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But that wasn’t the end of the story. McCartney also revealed that he'd recently reunited with Harrison's wife, Olivia, who informed him that she'd always loved the story about how *he* got zapped while they were out hitchhiking.

"I said, 'It wasn't me! It was George!'" McCartney exclaimed. "But I think it's amazing the way memory does that. It can just morph."

Harrison was 58 years old when he died in 2001 following a battle with lung cancer. McCartney has spoken often about their friendship in the decades since his passing, revealing in a 2020 NPR interview that he still communicates with his late bandmate via a large fir tree in his backyard.

"George was very into horticulture, a really good gardener. So he gave me a tree as a present," he said. "It's a big fir tree, and it's by my gate. As I was leaving my house this morning, I get out of the car, close the gate, and look up at the tree and say, 'Hi, George.'"

He added that the tree "takes me back to the time when I hitchhiked with him," adding, "As the years go by, every time I look at it, I go, 'That's the tree George gave me.' George has entered that tree for me. I hope he's happy with that."

Watch McCartney discuss the jolting incident in the clip above.

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