(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Sun 8 June 2025 14:30, UK
While many great musicians started off as wallflowers, it doesn’t take long for all of that to change. Screaming fans, flashing cameras and billboards with your face on it can soon change timidness to confidence. Especially in the heady days of rock and roll, when their entourages essentially sounded like a chorus of “yes’”, there’s little preventing ego from taking over. So what happens when you take five of the biggest stars and form a band with them? In that regard, everything about The Traveling Wilburys was destined to fail.
Made up of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, there was little in the way of a weak link in the chain. Every single musician was a songwriting powerhouse and performing titan. In the sporting world, such a collection of Galácticos would result in ego strongarming, where one would assume a leadership role and assert dominance over the rest.
Looking at that line-up, you could quite feasibly see any one of those musicians taking up that role. To my eye, the name Bob Dylan in a band line-up would mean one thing: a stern gaze pointed at the others who stand waiting for his direction and approval.
But the truth is, Roy Orbison was the unassigned king of the group. When his bandmates were crafting their own skills, in the confines of their bedroom with future ambitions projected in their mind, Orbison was topping the charts, cementing a legacy that predates that of his future bandmates.
“Every time we’d start thinking about it [recording the album], ‘Wow, Roy Orbison’s in the band!” Tom Petty once said of the songwriter. It’s also rumoured that Harrison wanted to have Orbison’s distinct voice in the band, that he “got down on one knee and asked my dad if he wanted to be in his band.”
While underneath Orbison’s Wayfarer stood a man who looked resolutely cool, seemingly unwavered by any adulation, his son confirmed that the gesture was indeed touching, and the prospect of the entire project gave him an elevated sense of artistic meaning. “Roy never really had peers, so it was great for them to get together,” Orbison claimed before adding, “It re-started Roy’s career – and the careers of all of them. They helped each other. It was a beautiful thing.”
After the group recorded Vol. 1 in the most romantically organic fashion for a group of rock superstars, their exciting future was cut short when Orbison died of a heart attack in December of 1988. While the group banded together for one last dance in 1990 with their third album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, the final song on their first record proved to be a fitting and foreshadowing moment for Orbison.
It was a contemplative song that laid questions of time, ageing and the general acceptance of that thought over the top of an evocative melody that showcased the best of all the superstars. But what’s more than that is the formation of the supergroup that was born from nothing more than creative curiosity and genuine passion. There was no three-record deal or grand plan to dominate a decade, it was simply to get in a room together and capture the magic of music. Even without the tragic death of Orbison, the song served as a fitting farewell to a chapter of time all members would look back on with fondness.
“Whenever I hear that, it’s just very emotional for me”, Petty explained. When you listen to it, what he goes on to explain becomes clear. It’s a joyous and present record that oozes naturality. Petty continued, “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.”
Petty was right, it’s not very often that happens because frankly, we haven’t seen it since. Besides Harrison’s desire, I don’t know what drew those five superstars together, but upon listening to ‘End Of The Line’, it’s hard not to believe it was fate.
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