How George Harrison asked Roy Orbison to join the Traveling Wilburys
As The Beatles’ career neared its end, George Harrison started making solo music, releasing his debut record, Wonderwall Music, in 1968, two years before the Fab Four finally called it quits. Shortly after the split, the musician released All Things Must Pass, arguably one of the best solo Beatles records, sending Harrison down a successful musical path post-break-up.
In 1972, Harrison told Record Mirror, “I wouldn’t really care if no one ever heard of me again. I just want to play and make records and work on musical ideas.” The musician’s dedication to his craft kept him busy for the next few decades, even though some of his albums fared considerably worse than All Things Must Pass. Still, Harrison wasn’t afraid to experiment with new genres and sounds, finding immense success with his cover of ‘Got My Mind Set on You’ by Rudy Clark in 1987.
The track appeared on his album Cloud Nine, produced by Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne. While working together, the pair discussed the idea of creating a song with some of their friends, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. The result was ‘Handle With Care’, intending to use it as the B-side for ‘This Is Love’. However, the group soon realised they worked well together and would benefit from creating an entire album.
In 1988, Harrison appeared on the radio show Rockline, explaining, “What I’d really like to do next is… to do an album with me and some of my mates. It’s this new group I got [in mind]: it’s called the Traveling Wilburys, I’d like to do an album with them, and then later, we can all do our own albums again.”
The group’s debut album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was released in October 1988, just over a month before Orbison died. The musician’s stint in the band gave him a final burst of popularity before his death, as, during the 1970s, he had struggled to find the same acclaim he garnered in the 1960s. His final decade saw him collaborate with Emmy Lou Harris (with whom he won a Grammy), Glenn Danzig and Bruce Springsteen. Yet it was his short tenure in The Traveling Wilburys that allowed him to leave one final, indelible mark on popular music.
Orbison and Harrison first met in the early 1960s when the former toured with The Beatles. He was a massive fan of Orbison, as were the other members of The Traveling Wilburys, with Petty once stating in a documentary, “Every time we’d start thinking about it [recording the album], ‘Wow, Roy Orbison’s in the band!”
According to Orbison’s son, Roy Jr, Harrison and the rest of the Wilburys wanted the musician to join their band so much that the former Beatle “got down on one knee and asked my dad if he wanted to be in his band.”
He added, “That showed such humility. He didn’t kneel before anyone.”
“Roy never really had peers, so it was great for them to get together,” Orbison claimed before adding, “It re-started Roy’s career – and the careers of all of them. They helped each other. It was a beautiful thing.” Sadly, Orbison’s time in The Traveling Wilburys was cut short when he died of a heart attack at just 52. The band continued as a foursome for a few more years before returning to their solo careers.
