How label executives formed the Traveling Wilburys: “Our reaction was immediate”
When most supergroups form, it’s because the respective members have either had a longstanding relationship with one another that has led to an urge to play together or it’s because a record label executive has forced the idea upon a group. In the case of the Traveling Wilburys, it’s a little bit of both.
All of the respective members of the group knew each other and were already friends and fans of each other’s work, but had been busy working on their own material and only ever occasionally stepped in to assist each other. This lack of activity between the five parties was understandable. All of them were known in their own right and had to maintain a level of consistency and regularity in order to remain in the public consciousness, so there was no good opportunity for them to sit down and work on something long-form as a group.
However, there came a time when George Harrison was hanging out with the other four, having just released his studio album Cloud Nine, and at the same time, he was being tasked by his record label to come up with a B-side to accompany ‘This is Love’, one of the singles from the album. Jeff Lynne had already worked alongside Harrison on the record as the producer, but the fact that they had access to Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty at that moment in time happened to be a blessing.
They’d end up cutting ‘Handle With Care’ together, but the results were far too astonishing for it to just be laid off as a B-side, especially considering that there was a cast of stellar musicians playing on the track. It immediately struck executives at Warner that this shouldn’t be simply laid off as a one-off track that was destined to be forgotten, and they soon began to encourage the group to keep their recording relationship going.
In an interview with MTV in 1988, Harrison recalled that one of the record company executives, Jeff Ayeroff, was the driving force behind them formally forming the group. “He thought this was really good, and sort of encouraged us to do it,” Harrison proclaimed, but this is only part of the story, and perhaps not exactly accurate if we’re to believe other sources.
In the liner notes for The Traveling Wilburys Collection, released in 2007, fellow executive Mo Ostin claimed that the entire formation was “a happy accident”. He explained in his short recollection that Harrison had entered the offices to play ‘Handle With Care’ to him and A&R head Lenny Waronker for them to hear, and they knew within an instant that something magical had been created.
“Our reaction was immediate,” he expressed.
Adding, “This was a song we knew could not be wasted on some B-side. Roy Orbison’s vocal was tremendous. I really loved the beautiful guitar figure that George played. The guys had really nailed it. Lenny and I stumbled over each other’s words, asking, ‘Can’t we somehow turn this into an album?’”
As much as it was a fortuitous scenario that led to them working together in the first place, it was even more of a stroke of luck that someone had the sense to tell them that this wasn’t just to be a one-off recording, and that they needed to form something more concrete.
“We urged him on,” Ostin concluded. “George felt the spontaneity of it, felt its driving force. He always had great instincts. Being as smart as he was, he had a remarkable ability to pull people together.”
