A previously unpublished memoir by Mal Evans, the Beatles’ road manager, is set to be released in December under the title “With the Beatles.” Evans compiled the manuscript in 1975 using a portable cassette recorder and a stenographer, and it spans approximately 95,000 words drawn from diaries, notebooks, and recorded recollections.
Evans joined the band during their early days at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where he worked as a bouncer before becoming their road manager. Throughout his time with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he documented their activities through photographs, lyric sheets, and other materials collected during tours and recording sessions. The memoir covers the group’s trajectory from the Help! album through the final studio years and Get Back sessions.
A significant portion of the manuscript focuses on the August 1965 meeting between the Beatles and Elvis Presley at Presley’s Bel Air home. Evans considered this encounter the most important day of his tenure with the band, devoting multiple pages to the experience. According to Beatles expert Kenneth Womack, who is overseeing the publication, Evans provides a definitive account of the meeting that has been subject to considerable debate among music historians.
The memoir also includes Evans’s recollections of other notable events, including a contentious tour of the Philippines during which the band inadvertently insulted first lady Imelda Marcos by declining an official invitation. Evans described the tense situation at the airport during their departure, when staff members confronted the group following the perceived snub.
Evans died in 1976 at age 40 following an incident with Los Angeles police. His family made the memoir materials available to Womack, who previously drew on them for an Evans biography released in 2023. The published edition will include approximately 400 photographs, some appearing for the first time.
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