Eric Clapton missed rehearsals, because he was suffering from heroin withdrawal the week of the show. His performance was described by some critics as "well below par". This was one of Clapton's last appearances for two years, as he battled his addiction.
More of the proceeds from the concert were frozen by the Internal Revenue Service that were given to UNICEF, pending a tax investigation. It took nearly ten years to release the remainder to UNICEF, by which time the crisis in Bangladesh had long passed. However, the effort was not in vain considering the proceeds from this project's products' such as the film and records are still supporting UNICEF to this day.
George Harrison later explained his reasons for turning Ravi Shankar's original plan for a small concert into an all-star show: "The Beatles had been trained to the viewpoint that if you're going to do something, do it big, and why not make a million dollars?"
The show marked one of Bob Dylan's first concert appearances since the mid-1960s, when he was injured in a motorcycle accident. EMI made a special deal with Columbia Records (Dylan's label) to include Dylan's portion of the show in the soundtrack album: while the LP (and later CD) version was issued on Apple Records (The Beatles' label), Columbia issued the cassette (and eight-track tape) version.
At this concert Eric Clapton plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar designed by Nashville guitarists Hank Garland and Billy Byrd.