How did The Traveling Wilburys get together?
The idea of a supergroup has always been a double-edged sword in rock and roll. Even though some of the best musicians coming together for just one song sounds like a great idea, it’s not going to make a difference until you get them in a room and let the sparks fly. Sometimes these artists don’t have the fire without their bandmates, but the connection between the Traveling Wilburys came together through dumb luck.
Before working with the rest of the band, George Harrison was already friends with Tom Petty, having done some work on his album Full Moon Fever. As Harrison started his career resurgence with the album Cloud Nine, he had been working with ELO’s Jeff Lynne, who had already worked wonders for Petty’s album.
After working in the same creative spaces, Harrison handed his record into the label only to be told that he needed one more B-side to complete the rest of the album. When using Bob Dylan’s studio, Harrison talked with his friend and hero Roy Orbison, whom he persuaded to add his voice to the song. Having workshopped the song, Harrison called Petty into the session to work on the tune. After not having a title for the longest time, Harrison found his muse by looking at a construction crate with only one phrase: ‘HANDLE WITH CARE‘.
Everything worked well at the session, but the label had one problem: the song was just too good. After writing one of the best songs of his career with the help of fellow rock legends, there was no way that Harrison would let the opportunity go to waste. Since he had his buddies with him in the studio, the next step would be to make another handful of tunes for an album.
Seeing how these were all legends coming together for one album, the band thought it would be funny to adopt surnames. In the liner notes, every band member is credited with a random alias with the last name Wilbury, almost to invoke the feeling of them as a travelling band going across the country.
What transpired became the Traveling Wilburys, who made songs that harkened back to the glory days of skiffle and old-school rock and roll. Outside of the sublime ‘Handle With Care’, every band member brought their own songs to the table, like Petty’s kooky encounter with a barmaid on ‘Last Nite’ and Harrison bringing a jaunty bop to the table on ‘Heading For the Light’.
The band even took some shots at some of their songwriting competition as well. Towards the end of the album, ‘Tweeter and the Monkey Man’ turned into Dylan’s way of outdoing his successor Bruce Springsteen, penning lyrics about Jersey girls and shoehorning in every single Springsteen trope he could fit.
The experience also gave the rest of the band an opportunity to work off each other. Petty had expressed that one of the best sides of joining the band is to see how every one of his favourite writers approached songwriting. Since every song was a group effort, most of the lyrics came together round-robin style, as each member threw out a line, which would either be welcomed or shot down immediately.
When the album was finally finished, the band had an idea to make an impromptu tour behind the record, where they would play songs from across their catalogue. Though Harrison was originally on board, he shut it down after scheduling conflicts came into play and not want to go down the rabbit hole of rock and roll touring again.
One of the biggest surprises was how every one of them complemented each other’s strengths, balancing out Dylan’s wordplay with the precise production of Lynne. The one who was most ecstatic at the end was Orbison, who got one of his first successful albums in years out of this record and one vocal showcase, ‘Not Alone Anymore’.
Those good times might have ended up being too good for Orbison, who passed away only a few months after the album was released. While the rest of the band were heartbroken, Harrison had mentioned feeling at peace with Orbison’s passing, knowing that his spiritual body will still live on and that he died on the top of his game.
Though the band had time to film the video for ‘Handle With Care’ while Orbison was still alive, the video for the final song ‘End of the Line’ was made in tribute to their fallen bandmate. Filmed in a train car, the band are playing the song in tune with the engine before their train car goes dark for Orbison’s verse. Instead of using archival footage, a spotlight hits a lone rocking chair, rocking away while the rest of the band support Orbison’s verse.
Although the band did try to regroup for the cheekily titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, most of the album turned out to be odds and ends from the guy’s solo careers, with far too much of a Dylan presence. Despite reaching some of their earlier heights on songs like ‘Inside Out’, most of this album feels like a jam session that happened to be recorded rather than a collection of fully fleshed-out songs.
While the Wilburys never formed again, every single band member looked back on the experience fondly. Outside of the usual band hangups that come and go, these projects were a labour of love for them, including some high moments from their careers. The production job for this album also led to bigger things for Jeff Lynne, who got to produce the Beatles’ new singles ‘Free As a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ at Harrison’s insistence.
Harrison would always refer to the Wilburys as his ‘other band’ he was in for the rest of his life, playing certain songs live before his death and Petty putting a few of the songs into his setlist before his passing. Although the term ‘dad-rock’ might have a bad connotation, there’s nothing cynical or cringy about any of these songs. After years of being in rock’s spotlight, this was about five giants hanging out as friends and making some tunes.
The Wilburys worked because they never treated the room like a competition. Nobody was trying to be the smartest writer or the loudest personality, and that is rare when you stack that many reputations in one place. If anything, the casual premise gave them permission to be direct again, to chase melody and mischief instead of legacy, and the songs feel lighter for it. You can hear a group of veterans remembering why they started in the first place, when a good chorus and a good laugh were enough.
That is also why the story has aged so well. It is tempting to frame the Wilburys as a historical curiosity, but the real charm is human. In an industry built on posturing, they made something that sounded like friendship, and then they left it largely unspoiled by overexposure. The records are not perfect, but they are warm, and they capture a moment when five famous lives briefly overlapped in a way that felt genuinely unforced.
