The Beatles star refused to join George Harrison for charity event

In 1971 George Harrison was asked by his close friend, Ravi Shankar, to help raise awareness and fund relief for refugees in Bangladesh.

Harrison was willing to help out but decided he couldn’t give a meagre effort. He told Shankar: “If you want me to be involved, I think I’d better be really involved.” So the former member of The Beatles – who had split up a year earlier in 1970 – started recruiting famous musicians to put on an incredibly lavish event called The Concert for Bangladesh.

Throughout the organisation of The Concert for Bangladesh Harrison brought on such massive names as Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Badfinger to play the show in Madison Square Garden.

He also brought on his fellow Fab Four pals Ringo Starr and John Lennon onto the project, meaning three of the four Beatles were now playing at the monumental occasion (although, Lennon later bowed out after an argument with his wife, Yoko Ono, prompting him to leave New York before the concert took place).

But when he reached out to recruit Paul McCartney onto the project, he wouldn’t do it. (Via Far Out)

READ MORE: Paul McCartney blasted ‘torturous’ training – feared it’d change Beatles music

McCartney opened up about refusing to join the project in 1971, where he explained that it all came down to the involvement of The Beatles’ former manager, Allen Klein.

Klein became the band’s manager after their father figures and founder Brian Epstein died in 1967. Almost straight away, McCartney butted heads with the newcomer after learning of alleged bad business practices.

McCartney later confessed: “You know I was asked to play George’s concert in New York for Bangladesh and I didn’t? Well, listen. Klein called a press conference and told everyone I had refused to do it.”

The Hey Jude star confirmed: “That wasn’t so.”

McCartney continued: “I said to George the reason I couldn’t do it was because it would mean that all the world’s press would scream that The Beatles had got back together again and I know that would have made Klein very happy.”

He added: “It would have been a historical event and Klein would have taken the credit.”

The rockstar went on to say he also “didn’t really fancy playing” the concert. Although, if Klein were not involved, he might “have had second thoughts”.

Ultimately, however, Harrison didn’t really need McCartney’s involvement.

Shankar initially hoped to raise something like $25,000 for Bangladesh. Harrison later confirmed the concert and the following CD made more than $45 million for the United Nations.

A year later, an Apple Films documentary was shown in cinemas to detail how the entire event came together.