“George was the ringleader, he could do whatever he wanted” – the formation of The Traveling Wilburys
Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Jim Keltner and more recall the "great days" of the ultimate supergroup
“When I got there on the first day, as I walked through this long backyard sloping up toward the studio, I heard the sounds of acoustic guitars playing softly, and I could hear them singing. When I got closer, I could see they were all on the front porch, three of them sitting on this swing and the other two sitting on the rail of the porch. That’s when it hit me. ‘Wow, look at this crowd – Bob, George, Roy, Tom and Jeff.”
Jim Keltner has played drums with Lennon, Dylan Clapton, Jerry Garcia, the Stones, Brian Wilson, Pink Floyd and Neil Young. He is not, you suspect, easily star-struck. But as he talks about his first day as drummer with The Traveling Wilburys in 1988, it’s clear that here was a band to astonish even the most seasoned LA pro.
The Traveling Wilburys had more star power than any supergroup before or since – the presence of Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison guaranteed that. With ELO maestro Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty filling out the line-up, and Keltner sitting in as “Sidebury”, they were simply too good to be true.
“It was an amazing thing, and from that moment it just got better and better,” continues Keltner.
“It was a little incestuous,” Petty admits, “but we all liked hangin’ out a lot before we had a band, and we were playin on each other’s records, so it all dovetailed nicely.”
Petty and his Heartbreakers had spent nearly two years backing Dylan on several legs of his endless tour. While they were in England, Harrison and his friend, Lynne, came to see them several times. Not long after, Lynne coaxed Orbison into the studio tostarton comeback LP Mystery Girl; he then put that on hold to produce Harrison’s Cloud Nine, before continuing work on Orbison’s album and also producing Petty’s Full Moon Fever.
Lynne introduced Petty to Orbison, and the three co-wrote Roy’s hit, “You Got It, the same day. By the start of 1988, the five future Wilburys were thick as thieves.
But even with all those interconnections, The Traveling Wilburys would never have been born had Harrison not got the itch to be in a band again. And when your first band was The Beatles, vou don’t want to be half-assed about the second one..
OLIVIA HARRISON: George had those intense moments in his career when it was absolute bedlam, so there were times when he craved solitude, but he also loved being with friends.
JEFF LYNNE, aka OTIS WILBURY: We were three-quarters of the way through Cloud Nine, and every night, as we were relaxing with a few drinks after mixing a big epic or whatever, George and I had the same conversation: *We could have a group, you know?” “Yeah, we could.” He didn’t like the idea of being a solo guy – that’s what he told me. He was never comfortable with it. He wanted a group, and, of course, George could do anything he wanted.
BARBARA ORBISON: George was the ringleader and had the vision for The Traveling Wilburys. The others were his cohorts and playmates.
TOM PETTY, aka CHARLIE T JR: There were some really good, long-lasting friendships in that band.
“THIS ISN’T JUST A B-SIDE, GUYS….”
Harrison’s plans for the Wilburys take shape as he slowly corrals the talents of Dylan (Lucky-Boo), Lynne (Otis-Clayton), Orbison (Lefty) and Petty (Charlie TJnr), with George himself rounding out the Wilburys as Nelson-Spike. The name Wilburys came from a slang term, apparently coined by Harrison and Lynne, for their way of rectifying gaffes made during the recording of Cloud Nine – “We’ll bury [Wilbury] them in the mix.”
BARBARA ORBISON: Jeff had a real commitment to finishing [Roy Orbison’s] Mystery Girl because it had taken a long time. Jeff wanted to do it, Roy was waiting for Jeff, and then Jeff called and said, “Look, I ran into George Harrison. He needs me to do an album; is that OK with you?” And Roy said, “Yes, just do it, but then come back.”
So when we finally hooked up, George had just released Cloud Nine, and he said toJeff, “I need you to produce a B-side for Germany.” And Jeff said, “Roy has already waited a long time, and he has to deliver this record to Virgin. I can’t leave the studio.”
Then George said, very cunningly, “What are you doing tonight? Why don’t you bring Roy to supper?” At dinner; George stated his case, and Roy said, “Well, Jeff, you have to help him.” And George said, “Roy, what are you doing tomorrow?” He said, “I’m just with Jeff in the studio.” So George said to Roy, “Why don’t you come along?” Then George got up to phone Bob.
PETTY: I lived not far from Jeff in those days, and he and George would come over and we would play guitars and drink beer or whatever – a very nice time. Then George stored a few guitars at my house so he’d have some instruments in LA. He came by after going out to dinner with Jeff and Roy to pick up his guitars. He said he had a B-side to make, and he had a chord progression. So he said, “We’re gonna do it out at Bob’s. It’s the only studio I can get in. Why don’t you come along and play with us?”
I said yeah, and it felt pretty natural because we I were all hanging out anyway. Jeffand George roughed out the music in the afternoon, and Bob I actually barbecued chicken for us. While we ate, we all sat around throwing lines out, got the lyric I done, sang it and cut the track. And that became “Handle With Care”. George came up with the title from a road case.
DON SMITH, ENGINEER: “Handle With Care” was finished at Westlake Audio [in Hollywood]. I had worked with Tom a lot, so he called me to come by, and just oversee what was going on. I recorded Roy’s vocal cos he hadn’t done it yet, and Tom overdubbed the harmonica because Bob didn’t want to come down to the mix.
And then George overdubbed his vocals. The whole thing was just for a B-side, so it was no big deal, and we were in there just having fun. And then, all of a sudden, it’s six o’clock the next morning, and they’re like, “Whoa – this is really good. You know what? This isn’t just a B-side, guys.”
PETTY: George had the track done for a week or so. Then he came over again and he was really I excited. He said, “Let’s do nine more of these and have a band!” Right after that, George and Jeff and I drove down to Anaheim, where Roy was playing, to ask him to be in the band. After the set, we went backstage to see him.
We threw everybody out of the dressing room and we told him, “We’ve got this band and we want you to be in it.” He said that he’d do it, and we drove home really happy, going, “Roy Orbison’s in our band!” Then George said, “I’m gonna be the manager, and let’s not tell any record companies or anything until we’re done with the record.” So it was really unofficial.
“BOB WAS THE PREZ, BUT GEORGE WAS THE KEY TO THE WHOLE THING…”
In keeping with the ultra-casual vibe of the group, The Traveling Wilburys decided to record DIY-style in a home studio Dave Stewart had installed in the guest cottage behind his home in the Encino Hills. They had nine days in May to write and record nine more tracks, after which Dylan and Orbison would return to the road.
PETTY: Dave was just another pal, and he wasn’t using his studio, so it was just a natural place to go. Plus, George could stay there.
LYNNE: There wasn’t really a studio per se, or even a room that was like a studio, so we used the kitchen for all the rhythm tracks, with all of us on the acoustics. It was always meant to be played down as a bit of fun, so it was perfect.
OLIVIA HARRISON: George stood outside the house in the bushes on the first day of the sessions and waited for everybody to drive up so that he could film them arriving.
PETTY: When we got there every morning, we would sit around bleary-eyed with tea and coffee and cigarettes – we were all smokers then. Very few times did anybody come in with much of an idea, so we’d have to just pull it out of the air.
JIM KELTNER: I stayed around a couple of nights just to watch them write, and it was one of the most hilarious things I’ve seen, to see Dylan saying all these silly things. But they were having fun, and it was amazing to watch them.
PETTY: We’d start out every day in the living room of the main house, tossing lines out. Bob usually had something, and I’d throw in a word. He’d go, “Tweeter and the monkey man were hard up for cash”, and I’d be like, “They stayed up all night sellin’ cocaine and hash”, then he’d have the next one.
We’d go back and forth and record it all onto a cassette, and then go back through it and write the best lines down. So it was me and Bob on that number; but on all the numbers, really, the lyrics were brought in for everyone’s input. Jeff might have a line, and the next one might’ve been from George. Sometimes someone would finish someone else’s line, or a key word might lead us into another line.
SMITH: I walked through the living room while Bob was writing “Tweeter And The Monkey Man”. He’s sitting there with a yellow pad, and he goes, “Hey, Don, do you know the name of a town in New Jersey?” I said, “I’m not getting paid that much.” Bob started laughing, because why is Bob Dylan asking me anything about anything? I didn’t know this until the album came out, but Bruce Springsteen called Tom and went, “Why did you do that to me?” If you listen to Bob’s lyric, it’s really about Springsteen.
We’re in the control room going, “Holy shit – how could he put that many words in such a small space?” Only Bob can do that kind of shit.
KELTNER: George would hand me a camera and point to something, and he’d look at me to see if I was shooting. Later on, I’d come in the room, and he’d say, “Fuckin’ Keltner – here he comes with a camera again.” That was George’s little joke. He was a funny cat, man – playful. It really shows on the Wilburys stuff; he had a ball with that.
SMITH: On the second day, there was a big fight in the kitchen between George and Bob, because George wanted to photograph everything and Bob was against it. But then Bob went to the opposite extreme: “Don, take a picture of this!” I’d say, “I’m trying to get the sound,” and Bob would go, “No. Come take a picture of this.” So half the stuff you see in the DVD (which accompanies The Traveling Wilburys Collection) is because of Bob.
KELTNER: People do not know how funny Bob is because he’s not like that in public at all. With the Wilburys, he was very relaxed, and he loved George a lot. George was fanatical about Bob – George knew some of the lyrics that Bob had forgotten. Stuff like that was really fun to watch. Bob was the Prez, and everybody knows it, but George was really the key to the whole thing.
PETTY: We wanted to write one specifically for Roy. George said to Roy, “You’re known as the lonely guy from ‘Only The Lonely’; what if you had one where you’re not alone any more?” That’s where “Not Alone Anymore” came from.
With “End Of The Line”, which is one of my favourites, George started it out on the piano, going, [he sings], “Well, it’s all right”, and in a little while the whole room was , singing, “Well, it’s all right”. And then I worked on those verses with Bob. It was an interesting way to write songs, and a lot of fun to do it that way. I think all of us enjoyed having the weight spread around.
SMITH: One night we decided to take a break and get something to eat, and we went to this sushi restaurant in Encino. You can imagine what it must have been like to be sitting there eating dinner and see Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne walk in the door: It was like whoosh – the air went out of the place.
OLIVIA HARRISON: Everybody came to Friar Park [George’s mansion in Henley-on-Thames] to finish the record. Bob still had some vocals to do, and Roy still I had to sing “A Love So Beautiful” for Mystery Girl. One of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had was sitting in the control room listening to Roy Orbison singing his heart out.
ON DECEMBER 6, 1988, three weeks after the US release of The Traveling Wilburys Volume 1, Orbison died of a heart attack aged 52, but he lived long enough to see the album zoom up the charts. Mystery Girl, released the following February, sold more than a million copies in the US.
LYNNE: Doing the Wilburys record meant a lot to I Roy, especially when it got to be a success… and just then he died. I used to think, what a tragedy, him going now. We could have written more great ones like “You Got It” – that was my plan. Of course, it wasn’t to be. And then I realised, ‘Well hang on, you got to know him and be really close to him for a year. I had always hoped to meet him one day, but to be his close pal and his producer was just a wonderful experience for me.
PETTY: We were really glad that we got to write his last hit with him.
“WE WERE HAVIN’ A BLAST. NOT ONE DAY WAS LIKE WORK!”
Rumours at the time suggested Del Shannon might replace Roy Orbison, but the four surviving Wilburys reconvened to record their second album, the whimsically titled Volume 3, at an estate sitting at the highest point in Beverly Hills.
LYNNE: Somebody found that it was for rent. It was really a fortune, but we thought, ‘We’ve done all right – why not?’
PETTY: We had a big flagpole with the Wilbury flag on it. Even from Sunset Boulevard I could look up and see that flag up there.
LYNNE: We’d already done it before, so the second album didn’t have that amazing newness. And, of course, Roy wasn’t there.
KELTNER: The second album was even more fun for me because we played live. The drums were set up in a part of the foyer where they sounded good, and the guys sat in a semi-circle facing me. That was one of the most enjoyable moments of my life, playing with Bob and Tom and George and Jeff.
OLIVIA HARRISON: I stayed at Wilbury Mansion during the second album. I was upstairs and they were recording right below me, so I’d sneak down the back stairs and try to be unobtrusive.
PETTY: It was great having George Harrison as our lead guitarist – very convenient. Thank you, God. He was just the best fellow we ever met.
PETTY: We got into an incredible run of music there, and we were havin’ a blast doin’ it. Not one day was like work. It was all just very natural.
LYNNE: It was a fine time, a wonderful experience.
KELTNER: The whole thing was just a ball. Those were great days.
