{"id":343480,"date":"2025-12-12T02:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/343480\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:23:09","slug":"the-traveling-wilburys-almost-added-another-member-to-their-band-who-happened-to-be-dead-for-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/343480\/","title":{"rendered":"The Traveling Wilburys Almost Added Another Member to Their Band (Who Happened to Be Dead for 10 Years)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Traveling Wilburys<\/a> were a true who\u2019s who in 1980s rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, and if the band had gotten their way, that lineup would have included a rockstar that predated all of them (all of the surviving members, anyway). A bona fide supergroup if there ever was one, The Traveling Wilburys was composed of American and British rockers George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison.<\/p>\n

The group offered an opportunity for five musicians, all somewhat removed from the apex of their fame, to collaborate and show the world why they really put the \u201csuper\u201d in supergroup. For Orbison, the new band was particularly fortuitous, as he had been struggling against his career\u2019s decline for years by the time the Wilburys formed in 1988. Tragically, he would be the first band member to pass away, only two months after the group released their debut, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.<\/p>\n

After Orbison died, The Wilburys forged on<\/a>. At one point, the musicians began tossing around the idea of adding another player to the mix. But who had the starpower to join a group like this one?<\/p>\n

Elvis Presley, naturally.<\/p>\n

George Harrison Explains How Elvis Presley Almost Became a Wilbury<\/p>\n

No, you\u2019re not confusing your timelines. Elvis Presley had already been dead for ten years when The Traveling Wilburys formed in sunny Los Angeles. Still, multitrack recording capabilities and archival tape meant that the Wilburys could feasibly take an old Elvis Presley recording and track over it, thereby \u201cadding\u201d the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll to their hallowed lineup. George Harrison recalled how this posthumous addition almost came to be in a mid-1990s interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody can replace Roy as Roy,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cBut maybe we should have some other person. Then, we thought of Elvis. Somebody had talked to the Elvis estate, and they loved the idea of Elvis being in the Wilburys.\u201d Harrison said the musicians planned to take an old Elvis record, put it into a multitrack machine, and retrack the \u201centire backing.\u201d He added, \u201cChange the chords, change the tune, whatever. Even the lyrics. And we\u2019ll all then sing this song, and then when it comes to the chorus, we bring up the other fader, and there\u2019s Elvis.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a 1995 interview with TV Guide<\/a>, Harrison said the band was going to give Elvis the moniker \u201cAaron Wilbury,\u201d after the hip-swinging rock \u2018n\u2019 roller\u2019s middle name. Everyone in the group had their own Wilbury name. George Harrison was Nelson Wilbury, Bob Dylan was Lucky Wilbury, Tom Petty was Charlie T. Wilbury Jr., Jeff Lynne was Otis Wilbury, and the late Roy Orbison was Lefty Wilbury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going to do that, but we never did it,\u201d Harrison told TV Guide. \u201cAt that point, I thought it seemed a bit too gimmicky.\u201d<\/p>\n

It Would Have Been an Interesting Turning of the Tables<\/p>\n

For whatever it\u2019s worth, this writer humbly agrees that The Traveling Wilburys made the right call by not including Elvis Presley in their lineup posthumously. For one thing, if the band wanted to use recordings of a late musician, they may as well use ones recorded by Roy Orbison, their actual bandmate. Moreover, Harrison was\u2014as he often was\u2014astute in his prediction that the move would come across as \u201cgimmicky.\u201d Of all rock \u2018n\u2019 rollers, Elvis Presley is arguably the most obvious choice, making the whole thing come across as a \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d situation.<\/p>\n

However, if Elvis Presley had actually turned into Aaron Wilbury, it would have been an interesting development in the decades-long connection between Presley and Roy Orbison. Years before The Traveling Wilburys would form\u2014and, indeed, years before most of its members were even close to being famous\u2014Presley and Orbison crossed paths at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Label owner Sam Phillips hired Orbison specifically to replace Presley<\/a> in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n

Presley \u201creplacing\u201d Orbison in The Traveling Wilburys would almost have given their relationship this weird, leapfrogging-from-beyond-the-grave quality that the surviving musicians were probably wise to avoid.<\/p>\n