#petty the biography

A web of admiration held [The Traveling Wilburys] together. Lynne and Petty were enamored of Harrison, just as they were raised in a world where Bob Dylan mattered to everyone. But no one was a bigger fan of Dylan than George Harrison. And every Wilbury looked to Roy Orbison with a kind of reverence. Orbison, for his part, understood that he’d just been invited to the hippest party in town. Every member was getting something. The spirit of the project was as light as the quality was rich, and it caught the public off guard, its humor in the foreground and little trace of pomp. It was a big hit, without a trace of the desperation that so often pushed records up the charts. Then, two months after the album’s release, Roy Orbison died. Harrison called Petty as soon as the news came to him. “Aren’t you glad it wasn’t you?” he asked Petty.

“Here’s the thing,” says Olivia Harrison. “George would skip all the small talk. ‘Did you hear about Roy? Oh, isn’t this terrible?’ They knew all that. They had a shorthand. They didn’t have to have the initial five-minute conversation. Eventually, they’d get to, 'Aren’t we lucky to be here?’ That’s what George’s comment meant. Life is fragile. George used to say, 'In a moment, everything changes.’”

- Warren Zanes,Petty: The Biography