(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Sun 5 April 2026 9:36, UK
The beauty of the Traveling Wilburys was that it came with no pressure, allowing each member to take a break from the stresses of their solo careers and remind themselves why they fell in love with their craft in the first place.
There was never a plan for world domination. Each member of the group had already been there and done that, got the t-shirt. Between them, there wasn’t an achievement left to tick, but George Harrison, especially, needed a venture to put a smile back on his face and longed for the sense of camaraderie he felt in The Beatles.
Compared to the other members of the band, Tom Petty was somewhat of a rookie despite being at the top of the music industry for a decade. Although there was a level of star power attached to his name, he wasn’t Bob Dylan or a Beatle, like two of his heroes, who had somehow, to his amazement, become bandmates.
Technically, Harrison was the instigator behind the band, but there was no grand plan. Instead, it was a freewheeling operation that suited the band members’ needs. They weren’t concerned with chasing the charts or selling out stadiums; the Traveling Wilburys were solely concerned with having fun with friends old and new.
Before the band’s formation, Harrison had gone through a difficult period creatively, but thanks to Jeff Lynne, his love for making music was restored. The pair worked together on 1987’s Cloud Nine, which restored his desire to be in the music business.
(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Rather than waste another five years pottering around his garden, he wanted to work with Lynne again. Shortly after the release of Cloud Nine, Harrison was in Los Angeles and needed to record a B-side. Fortunately, Lynne was also in the area to assist. At the time, he was also a producer for Roy Orbison and Petty; therefore, it made sense for them to come to the session and contribute. The line-up was completed by Bob Dylan, who had agreed to let Harrison use his home studio before being enticed to play on the recording.
It was pure happenstance that brought these five individuals together for this session, but magic filled the air. It gave Harrison a sensation he’d not felt in a long time and one he wanted to relive, leading to the band’s formation. During their time together, they made two albums, the latter created as a four-piece following the death of Roy Orbison.
In another world, they would have found time every couple of years to continue making records together, but sadly, it wasn’t to be the case due to their other projects, which paid the bills.
For Petty, his experience with the Traveling Wilburys was a delight from start to finish, which was about more than music. He later reminisced about his time as a Traveling Wilbury: “The thing I guess that would be hardest for people to understand is what good friends we were. It really had very little to do with combining a bunch of famous people, it was a bunch of friends that just happened to be really good at making music.”
From a musical perspective, Petty doesn’t regret a note they made together. However, he was saddened that it was short-lived and they didn’t create more memories, especially in a live environment. They never deliberately decided to stop making music; life and their successful solo careers simply took priority.
After Harrison’s passing, Petty revealed his main regret was that they never performed live. Admittedly, an extensive world tour would have been a logistical conundrum, considering they all had incredibly busy schedules. However, a one-off show, or short residency, could have been impossible, which Petty said was “considered often” but didn’t materialise.
“We talked about it many nights and then never really did it,” he told Mass Live in 2007. “We might have some beers and plan it all night and then in the morning we’d be like, ‘Well, no.’ (laughs) Especially when we became successful, there were all kinds of people trying to get us to do tours.”
He added, “When we did ‘The Concert for George,’ and Jeff came out with us and we did ‘Handle with Care,’ I remember thinking at that moment that George would have loved this so much. But there was a lot of pressure on us all to go out on the road together.”
No band member needed the money from a lucrative tour, so they chose to kick the can down the road. In their mind, there was always tomorrow, until there suddenly wasn’t, and they lost their lynchpin, Harrison, who would have been necessary for any live-show to happen.
At the end of the day, for music fans, it’s frustrating that there’s no live album for us to devour, but, ultimately, it’s not the end of the world. The friendship they had created was more important than anything else, so why risk it for a tour that could break it? Without playing a single show, they still staked their claim to be the best supergroup of all-time.
