Credit: Far Out / Jeff Lynne
October 24th, 2026 · 5:00pm BST
While it’s never easy to determine whether a supergroup has the potential to succeed or not, given how their very nature involves balancing the talents of pre-established individuals and hoping that their inflated egos don’t clash with one another, the primary reason as to why the Traveling Wilburys were able to succeed is because of the profound levels of respect that all five members held for one another.
Sure, people with the level of acclaim that George Harrison and Bob Dylan have received over the course of their careers can sometimes be tricky to work with, and even being in their presence can potentially prove to be daunting given how exceptional they are at their craft.
But, in the same breath, both of these elevated individuals had the utmost appreciation for the others in the band and showed it at every available opportunity.
Harrison fawned over the work of Jeff Lynne, Dylan was an acolyte of Roy Orbison, and so on. It was evident that each member of the band loved one another as artists, and therefore, finding a way to be able to work together was the only obstacle that had to be overcome in order for the band to function properly.
In truth, the band only ever came into existence as a result of all of them having been inspired to some degree by one another, and in the case of Jeff Lynne, who was arguably the least famous member of the group in his own right, he has arguably spoken the most about how much he has always been in awe of the four musicians he was fortunate enough to work alongside.
However, when it comes down to live performance, there’s one among his quartet of co-conspirators who stood out to Lynne as being the most exceptional on stage.
Speaking to Forbes in 2019, he stated that the last show he had been to simply for the purpose of enjoyment rather than to perform was one of the most inspiring he’d ever seen, and it just so happened that it was one of his fellow Wilburys.
Further reading: From The Vault
“The last show I saw as a fan, that blew me away,” he said, referring to having witnessed Tom Petty performing live shortly before his passing in 2017. “Tom Petty was my favourite in the performance thing. Not only because he played a few of my songs in his set we wrote together, so that was always great to see that it worked for him on the stage with all these millions of people shouting for him. It was just nice having been involved with the creation of those.”
The presence of Petty was an inspiration to many, and his anthemic style of songwriting was made for the big stage. However, not all who have been inspired by Petty have been able to translate this into the level of confidence that he exuded on stage, whereas for Petty, it was simply a natural thing, and Lynne felt blessed to have been able to follow him from up close.
