Dhani Harrison (born August 1, 1978) is an English musician and the son of George Harrison of The Beatles. Harrison debuted as a professional musician when completing his father's final album Brainwashed after George Harrison's death in November 2001. Harrison formed his own band, thenewno2, in 2006.
Harrison's first name is pronounced similarly to the name Danny but with an aspirated 'd'. He is named after two notes of the Indian music scale, 'dha' and 'ni'.
Early lifeHarrison's mother is Olivia Trinidad Arias, a Californian of Mexican-American heritage, George Harrison's second wife. His parents married on September 2, a month after his birth. He grew up with his parents in Henley-on-Thames, in Friar Park, the estate on which George Harrison had lived since 1970.
One of Harrison's earliest memories, from the age of six, is receiving a drumming lesson from his father's friend, "Uncle" Ringo. He recalled that before the lesson, he had been an avid drummer and had shown an immense amount of skill for a child his age. However, when Ringo began to play, the loud noise frightened him so terribly that he never used his drum kit again.
Like his father, Dhani showed a keen interest in Formula One auto racing. He accompanied George to Grand Prix around the world.
Harrison attended Badgemore Primary school in Henley-on-Thames, then Dolphin School near Twyford, a Montessori school. He later attended Shiplake College, also near Henley, where he showed a keen interest in rowing. Harrison is an alumnus of Brown University, where he studied physics and industrial design.
Musical careerAfter graduating from university, Harrison pursued a career as an aerodynamicist. However, this career turned out not to suit him as well as he had hoped, and he is following in his father's footsteps as a professional musician
After George's death November 29, 2001, Harrison, in collaboration with Jeff Lynne, completed George's final album, Brainwashed, which was released in 2002. He participated in a concert in George's memory organized by Eric Clapton, called Concert for George. The concert, which took place on the first anniversary of George's death, featured some of George's friends: Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Albert Lee, Joe Brown, and members of Monty Python. Harrison played backup acoustic guitar for most of the concert. Before the finale, McCartney relayed to the audience, "Olivia said that with Dhani up on stage, it looks like George stayed young and we all got old."
In March 2006, Harrison made a guest appearance on Liam Lynch's Podcast Video Variety Show Lynchland.They performed a duet that will appear on a Lynch album. He collaborated with Jakob Dylan on the John Lennon song, "Gimme Some Truth," for the Lennon tribute album, "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur", which was released on 12 June 2007. Dhani is credited on two unreleased Traveling Wilburys tracks under the pseudonym Ayrton Wilbury, a tribute to Ayrton Senna.
In April 2006, it was announced that Harrison's band, "thenewno2" had begun recording. The band released a music video, "Choose What You're Watching", on its website. "thenewno2" features Harrison on lead guitar, synths and vocals and Oli Hecks on drums and synths. He also contributed to the 2007 EP by Heartstring Symphony, Rooney's 2007 CD Calling the World, a re-working of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" entitled "The Heart Gently Weeps", and the first single on the Wu-Tang Clan's album, 8 Diagrams, released December 2007.
"thenewno2"'s debut album, You Are Here was released on 1 August 1, 2008. Their song "Crazy Tuesday" was a downloadable bonus track in Rock Band 2.
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