Later Life: 1988–2001
Early in 1989, Harrison, Lynne and Starr all appeared in the music video for Tom Petty's song "I Won't Back Down", although Starr did not actually play on the track; Harrison played acoustic guitar. The same year also saw the release of Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989, a compilation drawn from his later solo work. This album also included two new songs, "Poor Little Girl", and "Cockamamie Business" (which saw him once again looking wryly upon his past as a Beatle), as well as "Cheer Down", which was co-written with Petty and had first been released earlier in the year on the soundtrack to the film Lethal Weapon 2. Unlike his previous greatest hits package, Harrison made sure to oversee this compilation. Later that year, Harrison played slide guitar on the songs "Leave a Light On" and "Deep Deep Ocean" from Belinda Carlisle's third album, Runaway Horses. "Leave a Light On" was successful worldwide.
In 1996, Harrison recorded, produced and played on "Distance Makes No Difference With Love" with Carl Perkins for his Go-Cat-Go record.
Harrison's final television appearance was not intended as such; in fact, he was not the featured artist, and the appearance had been intended to promote Chants of India, another collaboration with Ravi Shankar released in 1997, at the height of interest in chant music. John Fugelsang, then of VH1, conducted the interview, and at one point an acoustic guitar was produced and handed to Harrison. When an audience member asked to hear "a Beatles song", Harrison gave a sheepish look and answered, "I don't think I know any!" Harrison then played "All Things Must Pass", the Traveling Wilburys song “If You Belonged to Me”, and revealed for the first time "Any Road", which subsequently appeared on the 2002 album Brainwashed.
In January 1998, Harrison attended the funeral of his boyhood idol, Perkins, in Jackson, Tennessee. Harrison played an impromptu version of Perkins' song "Your True Love" during the service. That same year he attended the public memorial service for Linda McCartney, in addition to appearing on Starr's album Vertical Man, playing electric and slide guitars on two tracks.
In 2001, Harrison performed as a guest musician on the Electric Light Orchestra album Zoom. He played slide guitar on the song "Love Letters" for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and remastered and restored unreleased tracks from the Traveling Wilburys. He also co-wrote a new song with his son Dhani, "Horse to the Water". The latter song ended up as Harrison's final recording session, on 2 October, just eight weeks before his death. It appeared on Jools Holland's album Small World, Big Band.
Harrison's final album, Brainwashed, was completed by Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne and released on 18 November 2002. It received generally positive reviews in the United States, and peaked at number 18 on the Billboard charts. A media-only single, "Stuck Inside a Cloud", was heavily played on UK and US radio to promote the album (number 27 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart), while the official single "Any Road", released in May 2003, reached number 37 on the British chart. The instrumental track, "Marwa Blues" went on to receive the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, while the single "Any Road" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
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