“George gets up and says, ‘Andy was not the first choice. There were seven guitarists and he was the seventh choice’”: Before Andy Fairweather Low joined George Harrison’s band, the Beatle was eyeing up Gary Moore and Alvin Lee

Andy Fairweather Low’s resumé reads like a who’s who list of guitar greats. Over the course of his prolific career the revered rhythm guitarist has played alongside some of the greatest names in guitar music, from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Joe Satriani and Roger Waters.

One of Low’s most notable gigs, though, came in 1991, when he was recruited by George Harrison to join the Beatle for a solo tour in Japan.

However, as it turns out Low’s wasn’t the first name on Harrison’s list. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even the second, or third name on the list: there were six potential candidates on the list ahead of Low when Harrison started selecting his band lineup – and Gary Moore and Alvin Lee were ahead of him.

When asked about his time touring with Harrison in the new issue of Guitarist, Low recalls, “Eric [Clapton] had said, ‘Look, I’ll put my band together and we’ll back you.’

“We were having a meal in Japan and George gets up and says, ‘Andy was not the first choice. There were seven guitarists and he was the seventh choice.’ Because Gary Moore was one, Alvin Lee was another, and eventually it came to me.”

As for why Low eventually got the call, Low goes on to explain that the pair had met backstage at a Ry Cooder concert, leading the Beatle to assume he played slide guitar – a quality that Harrison was evidently looking for in his guitarist.

“George and I had met at Ry Cooder shows backstage, so he’d assumed I played slide. Anyway, the first song we played when I went over was Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth).

“I knew it inside out because I loved [Living] In The Material World. But I said, ‘George, I’m the rhythm player, you play the slide. It doesn’t make any sense.’ Well, I learned the solo, but, believe me, there’s so many nights I didn’t sleep!”

Indeed, Low may not have been Harrison’s first choice (or second, or third, or fourth…) but he did end up being the ideal man for the job. As Low concludes, “George said, ‘He wasn’t the first choice, but he was the right choice.’”

It’s an interesting sliding doors moment, and one that begs the question, what would have happened had Harrison ended up recruiting Gary Moore for his tour, or Alvin Lee? Moreover, who were the four other players that came ahead of Low on the list of potential hired guns?

Harrison and Moore were, of course, close friends who played together on a number of occasions. In 1992, for example, they played While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the Royal Albert Hall. Before that, in 1990, Moore played on the Traveling Wilburys' 1990 album, Vol. 3.

As for Low, the seasoned session hand previously spoke of his time touring with Harrison in a recent interview with Guitar World, during which he recalled how he was forced to play slide even though he’d never played slide before.

He said at the time, “Clapton’s manager says, ‘George Harrison wants you to do the tour and play all the slide parts – he doesn’t want to do it.’

“Though I don't play slide and never did, I knew this was a life-changing moment – one of those moments where everything's going to change if it happens.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features interviews with Andy Fairweather Low, Yvette Young, and Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen.