George Harrison’s tour for his solo album Dark Horse was memorable for all the wrong reasons. He developed laryngitis during the making of the 1974 album — an affliction most evident on its title track — and was in no better shape by the time the bus got moving. The tour was dubbed “Dark Hoarse” by critics and fans, who bemoaned the setlist's lack of Beatles material and the lengthy opening performance by sitarist Ravi Shankar.
It was an unfortunate outcome for the former Beatle, as well as for his new, young guitarist: Robben Ford. The 45-date trek — Harrison's first tour since the demise of the Fab Four — was the gig of a lifetime for the then 22-year-old blues player. He was fresh off a tour as part of Joni Mitchell’s backing band, where Harrison had witnessed, and been impressed by, his preternatural talents.
“Once in a blue moon,” Harrison said, “there is an artist so natural to the blues and to jazz as Robben Ford.”
Like most fresh-faced shredders, Ford had ambitions of being the best of the best. He thought tackling Harrison's music night after night with him and his backing band — which included keyboardist Billy Preston, bass guitar player Willie Weeks and other studio- and road-tested players — would test his mettle.
He quickly learned otherwise.
“The music was very simple,” he reflects in conversation with Guitar World. “I don’t mean it in a derogatory way when I say it was mainly cowboy chords, like C, D and G.
“It was just triads, minor chords and major chords. There was nothing challenging about it in any way whatsoever, so I didn’t learn anything from it.”
Ford was also taken aback by Harrison's lack of leadership skills.
“George was uncomfortable being a bandleader,” he says, “and he didn’t really have any bandleader chops. Because of that, we were all just kind of on our own.”
“He also didn’t come to a lot of rehearsals. We’d be there for rehearsal, but he wouldn’t show up for hours and hours. So it was kind of a drag, and because of that, the whole tour had a very loose kind of quality to it and didn’t feel glued together. Basically, George played guitar and I played guitar, and that was that.”
Regarding their gear, Harrison played a pre-CBS sunburst Fender Strat and “Lucy,” his storied (and refinished) 1957 Gibson Les Paul, while Ford performed with a Guild Starfire IV.
The only respite came during performances of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" each night.
“I really enjoyed playing that song,” Ford says. “But my style and his were so different, as he was a very simple player, with long notes, and I was into playing a lot of notes.”
Sadly, Ford's overarching memory of the tour is one tinged with disappointment.
The fallout from the tour affected Harrison as well. He wouldn't launch another tour until 1991. Tellingly, there has been no official live release lifted from the Dark Horse shows.
For Ford, the fame he gained from the experience more than made up for any ill feelings he had about the tour.
“I got a lot of exposure that really kind of made my career,” he reflects. “Especially to have that kind of exposure at such an early age. Had I not been working with those guys, I don’t know what I would’ve been doing.”
Another guitarist championed by Harrison, gypsy jazz player Robin Nolan, was left to solve a mysterious handwritten chord progression left behind by the Beatle. The resulting song, co-written by Nolan, is among the tracks included on For the Love of George, Nolan's tribute album to his late friend, which features his versions of 10 Harrison tracks.
