The one Traveling Wilburys moment Jeff Lynne will never forget: “I still have the picture in my mind”
The entire story of the Traveling Wilburys feels like it takes place in a classic rock fan’s fever dream.
No one would have expected some of the biggest artists in the world to somehow find the time to put together the perfect little band, and yet when George Harrison had that one idea for a group, he was going to move the Earth if it meant getting the right people for the job. But even though everyone was a little bit starstruck behind the scenes, no one was more happy than Jeff Lynne when he started working with his fellow music legends.
Because Lynne was the last person to consider himself on the same level as any of his bandmates. He was the producer who had been along for the ride when making Cloud Nine with Harrison, and even though he was happy to turn the knobs and watch as Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Elton John jammed together on some of those tracks, it only took one conversation in the studio for the band to start falling into place.
Harrison had already stumbled upon bringing in Tom Petty purely by happenstance, but even though Bob Dylan was a huge find, no one could have imagined that Roy Orbison would have said yes. He was from a different generation of rock and roll altogether, but when the crooner started to mull things over, he wasn’t about to turn his back on one of the biggest opportunities for a career comeback.
Lynne had already started working with Orbison on his comeback album, Mystery Girl, and while there was more than enough gas left in the tank for the crooner to have a hit, ‘Handle With Care’ was a true labour of love for everyone. Harrison was behind the main verse of the tune, and while everyone else was helping to fill out the song with the middle eight and a couple of words here and there, Lynne remembered that things didn’t become truly fun until they started working on the music videos.
Any other band would have seen the video as the chore that they had to do after the fact, but Lynne was just thrilled to be able to hang out with his friends while the cameras were rolling, saying, “I’ll never forget being in the van leaving the location of the video shoot. Roy was doing a Monty Python sketch, playing all the parts himself, which was really funny, then he started giggling. This giggle was totally infectious and the more he did it the more we couldn’t resist. I still have the picture in my mind of George, Bob, Tom and me all giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls.”
But that kind of excitement wasn’t lost on any member of the band. They had one of the greatest singers that the world had ever seen sitting right next to them, and even though they all knew to check their egos at the door, they were more than happy to keep watching Orbison every single time he came with another brilliant joke in the car. Which is why it was all the more tragic when he passed away right after the album came out.
Orbison was on the cusp of becoming one of the biggest retro stars all over again, but if the ‘Handle With Care’ shoot was any indication, ‘End of the Line’ was when they realised they were having a little too much fun. All that time was more precious than they realised, but it was better for them to have worked with Orbison at all than to have missed the opportunity to have his voice for at least a little bit.
Because as much as everyone remembers those soaring high notes in ‘Handle With Care’ or his vocal feature on ‘Not Alone Any More’, chances are all the Wilburys remembered was the man who loved to laugh and gave them some of the best times of their lives in the studio. Anyone else would have been too scared to be around someone as legendary as Orbison, but he was just happy to have one last success before he left for good.
