Eric Clapton and George Harrison had a fascinating bond. They grew close in the early 1960s. However, when Clapton fell in love with Geoge’s wife, Pattie Boyd, their relationship hit rough patches. Boyd and George’s marriage started to fall apart. The two pals then got into a guitar duel for Boyd’s affection.

On the filming of The Beatles’ first major motion picture, A Hard Day’s Night, in 1964, George encountered model and actor Pattie Boyd. On their first date, George proposed to Boyd. She was dating someone, but their romance was over. Boyd ended their relationship and began seeing George as a result.

Also read: Who is George Harrison’s first wife Pattie Boyd?

In 1966, the couple got married. Something, one of George’s best love ballads, was inspired by her. But in 1970, when George learned that Clapton loved Boyd, their relationship began to fall apart.

In London, Clapton met Boyd and sang to her the song he wrote specifically for her, Layla.

“We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington. Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written. He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume, and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was ‘Layla,’” Boyd said according to the New York Post.

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Boyd continued, “My first thought was, ‘Oh, God, everyone’s going to know this is about me. Boyd and Clapton first connected that evening during a gathering at manager Robert Stigwood’s home. Once he arrived, George “kept asking, ‘Where’s Pattie? But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric,” Boyd claimed.

“George came over and demanded, ‘What’s going on?’ To my horror, Eric said, ‘I have to tell you, man, that I’m in love with your wife.’ I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: ‘Well, are you going with him or coming with me?'” She returned home with George, but their relationship didn’t last long.

Also read: Who is George Harrison’s second wife Olivia?

Soon after, in 1973, George started an affair with Maureen Starr, the wife of his Beatle bandmate Ringo Starr. Boyd was only drawn closer to Clapton by the situation.

Clapton unexpectedly showed up at their house one night intoxicated not long after telling George that he loved Boyd. For Boyd’s affection, Clapton insisted that he and George engage in a guitar duel.

“George handed him a guitar and an amp – as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword – and for two hours, without a word, they dueled,” Boyd claimed, adding, “At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn’t allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable.”

Also read: Who was George Harrison?

Boyd and George divorced in 1974. He was recording Dark Horse at the time. So Sad, the third song on the album is about his split with Boyd.

The former Beatle only wrote one song about the dissolution of his first marriage. With lyrics like “And he feels so alone/ With no love of his own/ So sad, so bad, so sad, so bad…/ Take the dawn of the day/ And give it away/ To someone who can fill the part/ Of the dream we once held/ Now it’s got to be shelved/ It’s too late to make a new start,” perfectly captures his emotions at the time.

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George’s song So Sad is arguably one of his saddest. George claimed in his autobiography, I Me Mine, that he penned the song in a New York City hotel room in 1972 when he and Boyd’s marriage began to experience significant problems.

Thankfully, after settling their divorce in 1977, George and Boyd remarried. Boyd married Clapton in 1979, while George married Olivia Arias in 1978. Even after Clapton won Boyd and the guitar duel, George and Clapton’s friendship nevertheless endured. George, in his later years, is seen talking about the love triangle in good humour.