In 1966, his wife, Claudette, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Two years later, while he was on tour in England, his home in Tennessee burned down, and his two eldest sons died. Through the 1970s, the hits stopped coming.
But the musicians who grew up on his songs never forgot him.
In 1987, Bruce Springsteen inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “I wanted a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector,” Bruce said, “but, most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison. Now, everyone knows that no one sings like Roy Orbison.”
A few months later, on September 30, 1987, Roy walked onto the stage of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles. Behind him was the TCB Band, which had played for Elvis Presley. And singing and playing backup were Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes. The whole concert was filmed in black and white.
For the finale, Roy sang “Oh, Pretty Woman,” his 1964 smash that spent three weeks at No. 1.
“Roy looked at all of us and said, ‘If there is anything I can ever do for you, please call on me,’” k.d. lang later remembered. “He was very serious. It was his way of thanking us. It was very emotional.”
A Black and White Night aired on Cinemax in January 1988. That year, Roy also joined George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys.
On December 6, 1988, Roy Orbison died of a heart attack. He was 52. A month later, his song “You Got It” was released, and it became his first Top 10 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. in nearly 25 years.
Truly, no one sings like Roy Orbison.
What’s your favorite Roy Orbison song? Share this with a friend who grew up on his music.