(Credits: Far Out / Jeff Lynne)
Tue 25 November 2025 13:00, UK
There has always been a bit of a love-hate relationship between Jeff Lynne and the touring life.
As much as anyone would appreciate their music getting that massive round of applause whenever they take to the stage, there are more than a few times when Lynne has managed to feel a little bit of regret over not hearing the sounds in his head coming through the speakers. But just because he didn’t have the resources didn’t mean that he couldn’t appreciate a great rock and roll band playing live.
If anything, what Lynne was going through was the same thing that his idols went through back in the 1960s. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to hear the Beatles’ influence on Lynne’s production, but when looking at the last years that the Fab Four played live, they were also running into the same problem of not hearing themselves when they performed or simply cutting corners when it came time to play tunes like ‘Yesterday’.
But it didn’t really matter to Lynne when the studio already sounded as good as it did. He could stretch out a lot more and hang out among friends when putting together his masterpieces, but it would have been a shame if a song like ‘Rockaria’ stayed in the vaults and was never brought out in a live setting. And if there was any band that deserved more of a live presence, it was the Traveling Wilburys.
While the idea of getting five different musical legends out on the road would have printed money, it was never going to sit well with George Harrison and Lynne. They had grown cynical about the road, and the last thing they were going to do was ruin the friendship they had with their mates by going out on tour and get into the same routine every single time they performed ‘Handle With Care’.
Then again, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty knew the ins and outs of performing all too well. Dylan is still on his Neverending Tour bringing the music to anyone within earshot, but even though Petty is no longer with us, his shows were among the best in heartland rock. Whereas Bruce Springsteen got his power through the E Street Band playing for hours on end, Petty managed to fit midway between Dylan’s soft-spoken acoustic shows, Johnny Cash’s musical authority, and Mick Jagger’s onstage electricity.
And even years after his death, Lynne felt that Petty’s shows were the last thing that excited him in concert, saying, “The last show I saw as a fan that blew me away, Tom Petty was me favorite 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.”
Although a lot of the visuals might help what Lynne did whenever he performed, what Petty captured when he played live was one step below a rock and roll church. He believed that any song had the potential to change lives, and whether that was singing along to ‘Learning to Fly’ or tearing through covers like ‘Mystic Eyes’, he wanted to make sure that everyone felt the same rush he did when he put a couple of chords together with his first band back in the day.
Lynne might have been the McCartney to Petty’s Lennon during parts of his career, but there was always that key difference between them that always kept Petty a little more on edge. Lynne was a craftsman behind the board, but Petty never forgot about the power that comes from being in a garage-rock outfit.
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