How George Harrison Quickly Formed The Traveling Wilburys

While George Harrison had an incredible solo career after The Beatles, he briefly formed a supergroup called The Traveling Wilburys. While the group had a limited run, it was still a legendary collaboration that featured rock icons such as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison. While getting all five of those legends together seemed impossible, Harrison quickly formed the quintet. 

George Harrison got everyone to agree to join the Traveling Wilburys with minimal effort

Harrison was an icon worldwide just for being a part of The Beatles. Many artists wanted to work with him, not only because he was a Beatle, but also because he was a tremendous guitar player and songwriter. However, artists like Petty and Lynne were all busy with their own projects. Dylan almost exclusively worked by himself.

The idea of the Traveling Wilburys came to George Harrison while he and Jeff Lynne were working on his album, Cloud Nine. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lynne said the group’s origin was spontaneous, with Harrison quickly coming up with the name and the first member he wanted to invite. Each member then accepted the invitation quickly, and the band soon formed. 

“When you hang out with George Harrison, you can do whatever you like,” Lynne said. “On the strength of that, that’s how the Traveling Wilburys came to me. One night while we were recording he said, ‘We should form a group.’ I said, ‘Who should we have in it?’ He said, ‘Bob Dylan.’ I’m going, “Bloody hell.” I never expected that answer. And then I said, ‘Can we have Roy Orbison?’ He said, ‘Great, I love Roy.’ And we both loved Tom. Everyone we asked joined immediately, so that was a great thing.”

Harrison had many ambitious ideas for the Traveling Wilburys

While the Traveling Wilburys was an impressive supergroup, it didn’t last long. Unfortunately, it’s not the band’s fault, as Roy Orbison died in 1988. The group only recorded two albums: Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 and Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. The group dissolved in 1991, and during their run, they never went on tour. 

According to Jeff Lynne, George Harrison had more ambitious ideas for the Traveling Wilburys. He wanted to go on tour, and he wanted to travel via aircraft. 

“We never played any concerts, though George had some whack ideas about how we’d do this tour,” Lynne shared. “His first idea was that we’d rent an aircraft carrier and then we’d just fly to different ports and let everyone climb onto the aircraft carrier and have a listen to us. The next idea was we’d do it on a train. We’d pull into a station and drop a stage and play for the people that came to see us at the station. But we never got around to either of them. Everyone else had their own tours.”

Harrison also wanted to create a film about the band through his production company, HandMade Films. While the Traveling Wilburys didn’t last too long, it’s still impressive that these five artists came together and made some fantastic music.