When Roger McGuinn accidentally turned down the Traveling Wilburys: “That was that”
The idea of joining a band like the Traveling Wilburys comes with a lot of ‘what-ifs’.
As much as George Harrison loved the idea of being in a band with a bunch of his friends, there’s no telling how one person is going to work in a band context until they all start playing together. And while there was no way anyone could have replaced Roy Orbison, the Wilburys were certainly open to jamming with a few more people in the background.
Because while everyone in the group was more than happy to work off each other, none of their sessions seemed to be about getting the perfect take or anything. They were coming together to have a laugh and make music with people that they grew up idolising, and while Harrison could be as much of a fanboy as any Beatles fanatic when working with Bob Dylan, every tune was done with the intention to make the best tune rather than letting someone’s ego dictate where it was going.
And while Orbison was only there for a short while, there was no question that he was the hero of everyone in the band. His voice was as impressive as ever during the final years of his life, and even if everyone wanted to remain anonymous in the group, there was a short time where Dylan even motioned to call the group ‘Roy and the Boys’ because of how much they looked up to him.
But if we really think about it for a second, who could have feasibly joined the band at the time? Jim Keltner was already the drummer, but as a frontman, Dave Stewart was certainly available, and since everyone in the band based ‘Tweeter and the Monkey Man’ off of Bruce Springsteen, there’s no question that ‘The Boss’ would identify with what they did. As they were talking about ideas, though, Roger McGuinn was always lurking in the background.
Looking at the whole thing on paper, McGuinn seemed to be the perfect candidate for coming into the fold. His work with The Byrds had earned him the respect of George Harrison, he had made his living covering Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty had even covered a few Byrds tunes in the past, but when the frontman finally got the call to have a jam session with the group, he ended up walking things back.
Although McGuinn would have loved working on the project, he admitted that he didn’t realise what happened until he got off the phone, saying, “I was in LA, busy building tracks from my Back From Rio album. George invited me to come and live at the house where they were all recording, it was around the corner. I said, ‘I really can’t, because I’m so busy with this pre-production. So that was that. You can draw your own conclusions of what might have happened.”
While McGuinn’s awkward refusal was to be a little bit heartbreaking, it’s not like any of the band members held that against him. Petty would find time to collaborate with McGuinn on a few of the sessions for the record, even going so far as to get into a major argument with one of the industry men that showed up at the studio one day to convince the Byrds frontman to make a trendy move towards pop.
As far as McGuinn was concerned, his legacy was secure, but there’s no doubt that other rockstars would have called him crazy for turning down the chance of a lifetime. Sometimes those kinds of opportunities don’t work out due to scheduling conflicts now and again, but the harsh reality of the music business is that once one door closes, there’s no telling if or when it will open again.
