Music insider Chris O'Dell reconnects with friend Pattie Boyd for podcast debut

Now she’s here.

And she’s bringing company, by way of podcast.

O’Dell's new podcast debuted May 19. The first guest was Pattie Boyd, the former English model whose first husband was George Harrison and whose second husband was Eric Clapton. Boyd inspired the Clapton songs “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight,” among others.

If there’s a comfort level during the podcast chat, it’s because O’Dell and Boyd have known each other since both were in the Beatles’ inner circle. O’Dell was living with Harrison and Boyd in their Friar Park mansion when Harrison learned Paul McCartney was departing from the band.

“It wasn’t that long — that much time later — when George said ‘I’m going to do my own album and let’s start working on it,'" O’Dell wrote in her 2009 book “Miss O’Dell: Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton.”

“He had everything written on paper, and I typed all the lyrics up for him, and off he went.”

Harrison’s second No. 1 single as a solo artist was “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” The B-side was “Miss O’Dell,” a song inspired by you know who.

'Stories that nobody else would have'

O’Dell’s podcast, recorded at and produced by The Church Studio in Tulsa, carries the title “Miss O’Dell: Abbey Road to Tulsa Time.”

She’s an Oklahoman (raised in Keota and Owasso) who moved to London in 1968 and wound up with her own magical mystery tour of the music world.

O’Dell worked for Apple Corps and, therefore, the Beatles. Her experiences included being asked to sing in the chorus of “Hey Jude” and being one of the few people present on Apple Corps’ rooftop Jan. 30, 1969, when the Beatles performed there. It was their final public performance.

O’Dell’s two years at Apple allowed her to cross paths with other music artists, including Leon Russell, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Joe Cocker. She was later hired by the Rolling Stones to help with sessions for their “Exile on Main St.” album. The “mystery woman” who appears on the back of the album, O’Dell worked as the Rolling Stones’ personal assistant during a 1972 tour.

During an 11-year span that began in 1974, O’Dell oversaw Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s 1974 reunion tour and Bob Dylan’s 1975 “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour, plus tours for Harrison, Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Santana, the Grateful Dead and others.

Once upon a time, you would assume O’Dell had a Rolodex to be envied. Relationships come in handy when trying to secure compelling podcast guests.

“Because I was in the background for touring and working for these different people that I worked for, I know people around them who have as good of stories as anybody,” O’Dell said.

For instance? O’Dell mentioned future podcast guest Leslie Cavendish, who was The Beatles’ hairdresser.

“So he’s got some interesting stories that nobody else would have,” she said.

Renowned rock photographer Henry Diltz, who visited Tulsa this month, also will be among podcast guests. O’Dell said she is about eight podcasts into the new venture. Names of other guests will be confirmed later. New episodes will drop on Tuesdays and will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and all streaming platforms.

“I’m really trying to get this history down because this generation is slowly disappearing,” she said. “I think it’s really good to get all this down and for people to be able to experience it. What a great time to have some nice, fun stuff to hear about, you know?”

Return to Oklahoma

O’Dell, asked how the podcast idea originated, said, “We kind of came to it by accident.”

This is not O’Dell’s first podcast rodeo. She hosted what she called “kind of a Zoom podcast” during the pandemic just to occupy time.

When visiting The Church Studio for a Q&A event in October 2025, the subject of having a podcast was broached, “and I don’t know how it all kind of happened, but (Teresa Knox, owner of The Church Studio) mentioned maybe The Church Studio would be interested in doing it. That, to me, was like a green flag.”

Or a welcome back?

O’Dell, who had been living in Tucson, relocated to the state where she spent her childhood.

“We talked about it and decided that, well, if I was going to do a podcast here, I needed to be here,” she said. “So it has all come together beautifully. I'm really happy with the way things have gone.”

O’Dell moved to midtown Tulsa (“I'm right here in the middle, and it's great because wherever you go there's something you're looking for”) in February and figures she is here for one or two years. Maybe longer? Wait and see.

“I have roots here, so it's not completely like going into a completely foreign place, which I've done before, too,” she said, indicating that she has reconnected with friends from Owasso and Keota. “But it was an easier move because I knew where I was going and I had lots of memories from here.”

O’Dell lived in Keota and Owasso when her father, John O’Dell, was a basketball coach in those towns. Was Owasso a small town? O’Dell recalled that Owasso had a Main Street, but the town was “extremely small.” When revisiting now-booming Owasso, she said she wouldn’t have been able to find Main Street without help. It was a different kind of exile on Main Street experience.

Behind the scenes

In addition to Harrison writing and recording a song about O’Dell, Ringo Starr and Tulsa-raised Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell crafted songs about her. Russell’s O’Dell songs are “Hummingbird” and “Pisces Apple Lady.” O'Dell and Russell were, at one point, in a relationship.

When it was suggested to O’Dell during a 2023 interview that she may have set some kind of record for inspiring people to write songs about her, she said, “I don’t know. I think Pattie may have beaten me. I think she had quite a few written about her.”

During a Monday interview, O’Dell expressed a desire to have Boyd be a return guest on the podcast. She wants her back because “there’s so much more we didn’t talk about” in the first episode.

“The ones I'm doing now have a personal feel to them, because I've experienced something with them,” O’Dell said. “So it could have been (an experience) on tour. It could have been just in social life or whatever. But I really want some of the back stories to be told. Everybody kind of knows the little bit here and there about a lot of musicians. But the back stories that went on, I think, are really interesting.”

O’Dell said she enjoys interviewing podcast guests, but, simultaneously, she’s learning.

“And I have a pretty good base to come from, as I was a mental health therapist and addiction counselor for 20 years,” she said. “Listening, and knowing where to go from there, I'm hoping that's one of my assets. But I'm just having so much fun. … I'm reconnecting with people I haven't talked to in years. Henry Diltz — I hadn't seen him in 50 years.”

Unfortunately, it’s too late for O’Dell to have a famous former roommate as a podcast guest. Before moving overseas for the Beatles adventure, O’Dell shared a residence with Teri Garr. O’Dell said it would have been so much fun to talk with the Oscar-nominated actress, who died two years ago.

During the roommate era, was there anything about Garr to indicate she was going to make it big?

“Well, that's an interesting question because, when I met her, she wasn't known, at least not outside of LA,” O’Dell said. “But she worked really hard. I mean, she was gone all the time, doing acting lessons and music stuff, and she had jobs in different little things. But I was thrilled (that she became a star). I don't know if I expected it, but it sure came quick, and she did so well with it. I mean, she really made a good career.”

If “Miss O’Dell: Abbey Road to Tulsa Time” was only about the swinging ’60s, it would qualify as a modcast rather than a podcast. O’Dell wants the podcast to cast a bigger net.

“There are a lot of people — not just my age — who are younger and really are interested in a lot of the classic music and classic rock stories,” she said. “I'm hoping that we even move out of that somewhat and have people on who are newer on the scene and feature some Tulsa musicians occasionally, just to get a little bit of that Red Dirt music and some of the stuff going on here, because this is really a musical town. It's going to be a lot of fun.”