Non-Beatlemaniacs who saw Peter Jackson’s 2021 Beatles documentary Get Back may have wondered just who the large, bespectacled gentleman was often in the background. He can be seen setting up equipment, writing down lyrics for bandmembers, or even fetching tea.

Later, during the climactic rooftop concert, he acts as a buffer between the Beatles and local police officers intending to shut the proceedings down. Had he not been there, one of the most famous outdoor concerts in history could have been a lot shorter.

That 6’ 3”, 205-lb. frame belonged to one Mal Evans, whose history with the group stretched back to 1962. He was working as a bouncer at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where he befriended the then-unknown and quite scruffy foursome (his own favorite artist was Elvis Presley).

Over the years, Evans filled a plethora of roles: road manager, equipment lugger (singlehandedly lifting heavy amps and instruments), bodyguard, secret keeper, fixer, and procurer of tea, guitar picks, women, and weed for the group. He could also add confidant, travel companion, and even artistic collaborator to the mix.

Now, the life of a beloved figure in Beatles history is told by one of the group’s most expert experts in Kenneth Womack’s Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (592 pp., $50, Dey Street Books).

When he died, Evans left a manuscript for a memoir. He also had more than 2,000 never-before-seen pictures, lyric sheets, drawings, receipts, memorabilia, and his own detailed diaries—most of which have never been seen by anyone until now.

“When this stuff showed up, it just blew my mind!” Womack says via Zoom from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland where he was scheduled to give a presentation. A surprise guest joined him on the video—Mal Evans’ son, Gary.
Gary says he knew he’d found the right author for the job after decades of inquiries about the contents of those battered banker’s boxes.

“This guy, for me, is just the most wonderful human being, and with the most beautiful brain to do this job,” he notes. “It’s a testament to Ken that my dad’s legacy will be there. He’s been on the periphery, but now he’s front and center. The Ringo Starrs have aligned.”

Womack also conducted more than 200 original interviews for the book, many with subjects who had never spoken on the record before.

Longing to be an entertainer himself, Evans was ecstatic (despite freezing temperatures) to appear as the “Channel Swimmer” in the Beatles film Help! He also threw back and forth ideas with Paul McCartney during the birth of concepts for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and Magical Mystery Tour film.

Evans even contributed some lines to a few songs, most notably supposedly “Fixing a Hole” (though he did not receive any songwriting credit). Finally, he also brought a group named the Iveys—soon to change their name to Badfinger—to the band’s Apple Records. Only to see any role as A&R man or manager wrested from him by a vengeful Allen Klein, then serving as the Beatles’ manager.
Houston pops up a couple of times in the book. Womack notes that the flat, wide-brimmed black bolero-style had that John Lennon famously wears in the last-ever group photo session was actually Mal’s, purchased in 1964 at Stelzig Saddlery in Houston (for the shoot, it was wrapped with a purple band by Mal’s wife Lil).

The other time was for an incident less charming, and points to the dark side to all that black and white footage of screaming teenage girls in the shows and on the streets.

In the frantic touring days of 1964/65, Mal would contact local police about providing enough security for the group, where things could get very hairy very quickly (and indeed, the book details many such time where the fans and the group themselves barely escaped serious injury).
When the band’s plane landed in Houston on August 19, 1965, for a pair of shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum, it was greeted by more than 2,000 frantic local fans. In their excitement, they swarmed the tarmac and indeed the plane itself—which was still running before the pilot shut it off as fans clambered all over it.

Trapped inside, the Beatles were eventually evacuated via forklift, but were now exposed and pelted with all sorts of items, thrown in adulation. A rough drop to the ground actually caused manager Brian Epstein to injure his spine.

And once they reconvened at the hotel, a furious John Lennon noted “This always bloody well happens in Texas! I told Brian before we left that we should double-check the security arrangements for Houston!”

“It’s incredible how many times he would warn city authorities. He’d go ‘What do you mean you’re only going to send two constables? And they just wouldn’t get it,” Womack says. “And that Houston story was pretty dangerous. There are so many wonderful, good sides to Beatlemania, but there is also a violent side.”

The book does great services in addressing the two primary dichotomies in the life of Mal Evans. The first is the balance between his roles as the band’s true friend, but also employee (and often, servant).
Womack tells a story of one late night when John Lennon decided he needed some new footwear and simply commanded “Socks, Mal!” Evans went away and dutifully reappeared in the middle of the night with a packet of brightly colored socks.

“Mal had a fundamental problem. People wanted to portray him as this gofer and oaf, but he was very smart, well-read, engaged, and a great conversationalist that folks were drawn to,” Womack says.

“But he was the guy they had to have, the guy with the Rolodex who could make things happen. And every time Mal got an opportunity for himself, the Beatles would draw him back into the studio.”

The other dichotomy is the pull Mal felt between wanting to be a good husband to wife Lil and father to children Gary and Julie, but then dive head-long into the bacchanalia that surrounded the Beatles, especially when it came to willing females. Lil would empty Mal’s luggage after a tour to wash dirty clothes and find notes from women with phone numbers and addresses from all over the world.
And as Womack notes, when a decision had to be made between the needs of and spending time with his family versus the Beatles, he usually chose the latter.

“When I was seven, I knew my parents’ marriage had failed. So, it was kind of a sham that it went on for another almost six years before he left us for his girlfriend in early ‘74,” Gary says, choking up a bit.

“I said to him ‘Dad, you’re going to leave us.’ And he couldn’t even be honest about that. I loved the guy so much, but he treated us very badly. And I don’t think many women would have put up with that for so long.”

Mal Evans died a sudden and shocking death in 1976 at the age of 40 when he was fatally shot by Los Angeles police responding to disturbance call. A reportedly depressed and drugged Evans was found with his rifle, refused to put it down, and then purportedly raised it at officers before the fatal fusillade.

Today, with Living the Beatles Legend behind them (though a second volume featuring photos and memorabilia is on the way), both men have had epiphanies. For Womack, it’s discovering how “dynamic and intellectually curious” Mal Evans was. For his son Gary, he learned “1,000 percent more” about his father’s life.

For a band that broke up 53 years ago, the Beatles never seem to be out of public consciousness with new projects constantly popping up.
Whether it was the Beatles Anthology, the 1 compilation, or Cirque de Soleil Love show to the Peter Jackson Get Back documentary and now the current Last Beatles Song “Now and Then." Which at the time of this writing is No.1 in the UK and No.7 in the U.S. The Beatles—in a way unlike any of their contemporaries or bands since—are always alive.

“It’s not driven by Baby Boomers and Gen X. We’ll have social media influencers at our talk tonight who are 20,” Womack says. “And this story will be told in new and different ways forever. And new things will be discovered.”

Finally, Womack has a local connection—he grew up in the Houston suburb of Kingwood. He’ll be back in town early next year for a talk and hopes to bring someone special along for the journey.

“I’m trying to get Gary to come!” Womack laughs. “He’s never seen the Alamo!”

But alas, Gary Evans will have a different Texas destination in mind.

“My wife wants to go to and see the biggest Buc-ee’s!” he says. “They do have the cleanest restrooms in the U.S.!”

For more on Living the Beatles Legend and Kenneth Womack, visit KennethWomack.com