Becoming friends with George Harrison led to a series of rock ‘n’ roll dream jobs for Jeff Lynne, as the leader of the Electric Light Orchestra produced Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, the Beatles, Paul McCartney and the Traveling Wilburys, an all-star amalgam featuring Bob Dylan that debuted on Oct. 18, 1988.
But it all started with an off-handed comment from Dave Edmunds, for whom Lynne had earlier written and produced “Slipping Away,” a Top 40 hit in 1983.
“We were having dinner, Dave Edmunds and myself,” Lynne later told David Dye, “and we finished the dinner, and walked our separate ways down the street and suddenly he shouted back – though we’d just been to dinner for the last three hours: ‘By the way, George Harrison asked me to ask you if you like to work with him on his new album.'”
“By the way!” Lynne added, with a laugh. He and Harrison ended up going on vacation to Australia, with the aim of seeing a Grand Prix race, and several songs that would eventually appear on the former Beatles star’s 1987 comeback disc Cloud Nine emerged.
“We hit it off really well,” Lynne said. “Then Tom had heard George’s album that I’d just produced – and he loved it. He actually came over to me one day and said: ‘Do you fancy doing some songs with me?’ It’s because of the album with George, yes, that I got asked by a lot of people to work with them.”
After Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, Lynne would go on to helm Orbison’s 1988 finale Mystery Girl; Tom Petty’s 1989 effort Full Moon Fever; the Wilburys’ 1990 followup Vol. 3, two John Lennon songs updated with parts from McCartney, Harrison and Ringo Starr for the Anthology series; McCartney’s 1997 release Flaming Pie; and Harrison’s 2002 posthumous album Brainwashed, among many others.
“It was absolutely marvelous,” Lynne said. “When I think about it, it was like a dream come true. You can get what you really wish for, if you try hard enough. That’s what I found.”
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