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(Credits: Far Out \/ Tom Petty \/ Eric Meola)<\/p>\n
Fri 5 December 2025 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
Both Tom Petty<\/a> and Bruce Springsteen were never men blessed with the greatest voices in rock and roll history. <\/p>\n Neither of them were accustomed to singing like Freddie Mercury by any stretch, but they learned from the likes of Bob Dylan that it wasn\u2019t about trying to sing perfectly in tune. It was about trying to get the right emotion out of every word you sang, but sometimes even they had to stare in awe at the rock and rollers that sounded immaculate without even trying.<\/p>\n Granted, the entire genre of heartland rock seemed indebted to the everyday singer who didn\u2019t have to take gigantic vocal leaps. As much as both \u2018The Boss\u2019 and Petty loved a band like The Beatles, for instance, there was no way that they were ever going to have the same range as Paul McCartney did or be able to shred their voice the same way John Lennon had done on his solo tracks like \u2018Mother\u2019. They could feel that pain, but they had a much different set of tools to work with.<\/p>\n A lot of Petty\u2019s range came from the raw conviction in his voice. He never claimed to be the greatest singer in the world, but the personality and raw vulnerability in his voice made you feel like he believed every single word that he was singing about. That kind of vocal talent had a lot more in common with someone like George Harrison, but there was another Wilbury on Petty\u2019s mind when talking about the best of the best.<\/p>\n The Traveling Wilburys were practically a miracle band to come together, but if Dylan was the best lyricist they could have asked for and Harrison was the best guitarist, Roy Orbison was the one that tied everything together whenever he sang, with Petty recalling<\/a>, \u201cHe knew he was the best singer. God, he could sing! When he\u2019d sing during the Wilbury sessions, we\u2019d 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\u2019d go, \u2018Roy, quit it, you\u2019re driving me crazy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Petty was already in heaven listening to Orbison\u2019s playback every single day, but Springsteen\u2019s relationship with that voice was a lot more intimate. He had grown up listening to people like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry singing these rock and roll tales, but when it was the vibrato that Orbison put on everything that made each record feel equal parts spooky, romantic, and unflinchingly honest whenever \u2018The Boss\u2019 cued him up.<\/p>\n