Who sang lead the most for the Traveling Wilburys?
With a supergroup as seismic as The Traveling Wilburys, you could imagine there would be a lot of inflated egos trying to muscle each other out of the way.
After all, you had a former Beatle, the ELO frontman, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison, somehow trailing behind to boot. In any other scenario, you would never put five such massive personalities in one room, let alone form a band together, because the shine of arrogance would ordinarily be so blinding that nothing would ever get done.
But, of course, something was different with The Traveling Wilburys. Putting each of their respective stratospheric careers to the side, they were able to intentionally cultivate a supergroup like nothing on Earth – not because they were massaging their own egos, but because they knew the exact moments when to let each other shine, and when to step back.
It goes without saying that there would have been times when this was put to the test, but it was clear that each member of the band found their groove by seeking out their assigned roles and sticking to them. Harrison was the ideas man: the one who made the decisions on songs and who would sing them. Jeff Lynne was the technical sonic architect.
So, who was the lead?
For the most part, it was Tom Petty who took home the title of being the voice of the operation, after he sang lead vocals on no less than nine of the band’s tracks across the span of their two albums. Assuming the helm on a shedload of songs from ‘She’s My Baby’ to ‘End of the Line’, there was no denying that he was The Traveling Wilburys’ most valuable vocal asset – and to a certain extent, he knew that all too well.
In fairness, it wasn’t as if Petty was aware and intent on hogging all the spotlight, because Dylan fell into step not so far behind him. With the lyrical maestro taking on lead vocals on eight tracks out of their whole tenure, it was somewhat ironic given that he was arguably the band’s weakest singer and his key talents patently lay elsewhere.
Yet through it all, the assumption of frontman qualities was something that seemed to come about by accident within the dynamics of the band, particularly in the context of Petty saying, “I was just happy to be there. I always felt I was blessed to be there at all, and if I helped at all, I was just grateful.”
Indeed, when it came to one of his starring moments with ‘End of the Line’, it was clear he viewed its legacy as far more of a team effort than a personal endeavour. “Whenever I hear that it’s just very emotional for me,” he admitted. “I really think that’s the Wilburys at their best, it was just a terrific time. How often do you write a song that’s for four or five people? It’s not very often that happens but we really collaborated and put our heads together and made those songs happen.”
That was ultimately the magic of the Traveling Wilburys, where one icon could assume the mantle but never fully outshine the light of another. It’s a theory that needs to be studied – because where putting that much talent in one room would normally create chaos, this band were only ever interested in perfect harmony.
