(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Wed 10 December 2025 18:00, UK
s first got started, all of them were aware of one thing: leaving your ego at the door.
There were millions of opportunities where Bob Dylan could have asserted himself into the conversation or Jeff Lynne could have cracked the whip in the studio, but this was a band that wanted to have fun before trying to be even remotely professional. They were all friends at the end of the day, but Tom Petty still had to pinch himself for working with the greatest artists in their field.
But when you think about it, Petty was already on his way to joining his fellow Wilburys when he got the call to join. He didn’t take shit from anybody, and that’s what endeared him to people like Lynne and George Harrison when they had this idea for an imaginary band when starting work on what would become ‘Handle With Care’. The band came together by accident, but the chemistry between them certainly wasn’t.
The entire group fit like a glove when they started playing their tunes, and despite Dylan having to be back out on the road a few weeks after cutting their first album, you can hardly hear that massive turnaround time on the record. All of them seemed to be coming up with those tunes like clockwork, and watching everyone throw out lines to each other was practically an education for Petty as to how his favourite songwriters came up with the goods.
Then again, it’s not like the band didn’t know how to play to their strengths, either. Dylan and Petty were completely comfortable writing the bizarre Western tale that turns up on ‘Tweeter and the Monkey Man’, and regardless of who was singing, anyone in that studio who claimed that they could have sung a song better than Roy Orbison was either letting their ego get involved in the tune or was borderline delusional.
Practically everyone bowed down to what Dylan and Orbison had done in their fields, but Petty felt the most kinship to Harrison after the record was over. Harrison may have eventually turned up to be in the video for the song ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and hang out with Petty outside the studio, but the heartland rocker was convinced that there was a connection there that went deeper than typical work buddies.
Compared to every other legend that Petty ever met, he felt truly blessed to be friends with a living legend that actually managed to deliver, saying, “The best thing I can say to people that are curious about that is George was probably everything that you thought he was, and then some more. Very funny man; he could just kill me with his humor. He was a great guy and I miss him terribly. […] I have thousands [of memories], you know. Thousands and thousands. We’d be here all day talking about George.”
And it’s not like Petty doesn’t have firsthand experience working with legends, either. He had been known to work with everyone from Roger McGuinn to Johnny Cash in the past, but no matter how much he loved covering old Byrds tunes or throwing the occasional country song into his setlist, what kept most people intrigued when talking to Harrison was how authentic he could be when left to his own devices.
The guitarist was a true legend, but Petty loved how Harrison could take the piss out of himself from time to time. He had the utmost respect for the greatest artists of all time like Carl Perkins and Del Shannon, but for someone that had been a member of one of the most popular rock and roll bands to ever exist, Harrison perfectly toed the line between being a piece of rock and roll history and a musical older brother to Petty in some capacity.
Related Topics