(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Sun 25 January 2026 19:45, UK
In a band as star-studded as the Travelling Wilburys, it was hard for Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne not to be treated like the new kids.
Being in a group with people like George Harrison was always going to be a little bit intimidating, but it was well worth it for them to learn how the legends of their childhood wrote some of their classic tunes. But for a band that was made up of five musicians from fairly random rock and roll outfits, the fact that they blended so well is practically a miracle.
Because if there’s one thing that can’t be faked in the industry, it’s band chemistry. Everyone needs to gel for any band to work perfectly, and the minute that everyone started singing those opening lines on ‘Handle With Care’, they were practically meant for each other. But it was also a good time for both Lynne and Petty to take a break from what they were doing and work with some of the best musicians that they could.
Petty had already been working with Bob Dylan in the mid-1980s, but after coming off an uninspired record and watching his house burn down, getting the chance to put the Heartbreakers on the shelf for a little bit was a blessing in disguise. The same could be said of Lynne, who was already spinning his wheels with ELO for the last few years. He had had enough of the same old album cycle, so working with Harrison on Cloud Nine planted the seed for what the supergroup would become.
But even though it sounds insane for two legends like Dylan and Harrison to be in the same band together, everyone was shocked when Roy Orbison agreed to join the group. He had been a vocal legend to the band for ages, and while Harrison practically wrote a piece in ‘Handle With Care’ specifically for Orbison to sing, there are certain tunes that no one else in the band could have ever touched.
After all, Lynne had worked with Orbison since his comeback album Mystery Girl, and when he passed away, he was convinced that no one else would have been able to fill his shoes, saying, “You can’t replace Roy. It’s impossible. Roy had the best voice of anybody I’ve ever heard in rock ‘n’ roll, just magnificent.” But it’s not like that kind of magic was lost on Orbison when he first walked into the studio.
He was more than happy to be working with his friends, but Petty said that Orbison knew he could wipe the floor with any other singer in the band, saying, “He knew he was the best singer alive, but he hadn’t had a big hit record in a long time. God, he could sing! When he’d sing during the Wilbury sessions, we’d all just look at each other with big eyes. Even if he was just sitting at a table working out a song and singing, we’d go, ‘Roy, quit it, you’re driving me crazy.’”
Which probably explains why the next Wilburys album did have a little bit less magic to it. There were still solid songs, and there aren’t many tunes featuring Harrison, Petty, Lynne, and Dylan that could be considered outright bad, but when you heard what Orbison could do on the first Wilburys record, it was always going to be a step down for anyone wanting those kind of operatic high notes.
But even if Orbison didn’t get to see the success of the Wilburys for very long, it’s nice to know that he went out at the top of his game. He had been a forgotten piece of rock and roll history by far too many people, so giving him one last legendary record to wrap up his career is the kind of fate that every musician dreams of having towards the end of their life.
Related Topics