(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Mon 29 December 2025 17:00, UK
For many people, the spine-tingling energy of ELO meant that Jeff Lynne was the first man who made them realise the horizons that rock and roll could sweep up in its midst.
But for a man who is so regularly branded as a hero, it’s only natural for Lynne to feel the need to look inwards and reignite that idolising spirit within himself. To fill those admittedly massive shoes, you’d think it would have to be someone mighty and massive, whose career and legacy left an inimitable golden trail. But instead, Lynne went looking down the opposite route.
That is not meant as an insult to Del Shannon, but it was still true that he was no Elvis Presley or Hank Williams, because, indeed, he seemed to land somewhere right between those two extremes of rock and roll and country music, and it was this unique position that made Lynne admire him as a hero the most.
“I’ve always loved Del,” he later enthused. “He was my first hero when I was young. When ‘Runaway’ came out, I was only 13 or 14. I had to have my own rock star. Well, they weren’t called ‘rock stars’ then – they were all pop stars. But my sisters had had Elvis – and I loved Elvis, of course – but you had to have your own hero, you know? So Del Shannon was my one.”
That relationship was, in many ways, the true definition of ‘in sickness and in health’. At times, Shannon’s career was far less than straightforward. It had more than its fair share of rocky moments and hairy patches where the man’s legacy could have teetered into oblivion. But somewhere deep within him, Lynne always kept the faith that his hero would rise again to the top.
It was the 1961 hit of ‘Runaway’ which had first captured the hearts of the world, as well as Lynne, towards Shannon. But this steam train continued to travel on its course for the rest of his life, and still served him up the most success even when other areas had dwindled. It was perhaps this enduring appeal which made Lynne extend the olive branch to his idol.
Shannon was no fool in choosing to take up that offer multiple times, first recording a selection of songs with Lynne in 1975, including the country song ‘In My Arms Again’. But this was not just a one-off special occasion – their relationship stretched through the years and decades, offering the star a helping hand when needed and affording the ELO frontman the chance to keep regaling in the orbit of his hero.
In a sliding doors moment of massive fate, Lynne and Shannon could have also become bandmates if only the stars had aligned themselves in the right way. Having had a stint of recording with ELO in 1988, rumours swirled over the next few years that the ‘Runaway’ singer could have stepped up to the plate of the Traveling Wilburys, following the death of Roy Orbison.
A tragic twist of the knife meant that the gig never rose to its full potential, and after Shannon’s own passing in 1990 at the age of only 55, Lynne was left to grieve the life of a man who knew his own stratospheric surroundings would have never developed without. That’s the real power of someone’s first-ever hero – that no matter how much they may have bowed out early, their impact is never forgotten.
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