What if: a Traveling Wilburys Tour

The Traveling Wilburys were definitely an exciting collaboration in the studio, but I've always wondered about the possibility of a Wilburys tour. George said this after his 1991 tour of Japan:

"That would be something I'd like to experience. I've always played around in my own mind what a Wilburys tour could be. Would each person do a solo set and then do Wilburys at the end, or would we all go right on from beginning to end and make everything Wilburys? It's an intriguing thought. We could have a great band up there and the four of us could play acoustic if we wanted to. We could all sing "Blowin' in the Wind" and Bob could sing "Something". Or we could just sing our individual songs and make them Wilbury tunes, as if we'd recorded them that way. Whatever it was, we could do it."​

So, imagine a scenario: George is coming hot off of his Japan tour, and wants to keep going. So he enlists the other Wilburys to go on tour in 1992. What would the setlist be like - what Wilbury songs and what solo songs would they play? Would they sing their own solo songs, or mix up the vocalists like George mentioned? Would there be a tribute to departed Wilbury Roy Orbison?

What would their lineup be like - they'd need a backing band for sure. I'm sure they could bring Jim Keltner along to play drums. Petty played bass on the first album, and he and Lynne shared bass responsibilities on Vol. 3. Would one of them play bass, or would they get someone to back them up? Would they have horns, or a keyboardist?

And, most importantly, would they come up with new Wilbury names?

 

I'll have to think about all that but what I do know is that scalped tickets would be $1000 each.

And I would have paid it.

 

I know this is a hypothetical thread but in a recent interview with David Fricke, Tom Petty revealed that a Wilburys tour was unlikely ever to happen. He spoke about an unnamed promoter who in the early nineties managed to hold court with himself, Dylan, Lynne, and Harrison in order to present them with a proposal for a "Traveling Wilburys" tour. Petty mentioned that the dollar figures that were being thrown around by this particular promoter were insanely large and during the course of the meeting the promoter had actually managed to sway both himself and Lynne to his side of the table just based upon the dollar amount he was offering. Dylan was non committal but Harrison was dead-set against a return to the stage. After everyone had their say, Harrison asked the promoter specifically just how much effort it would take for him to go on this tour and the promoter responded that the effort required wouldn't be nearly what Harrison was making it out to be. Harrison's retort was "would it require more effort than it would for me to have a lie about in a hammock?" to which the promoter replied in the affirmative. Harrison then immediately brought the discussion to a close, stating that in that case the tour would require too much effort on his part.

 

I would be hoping that they would do about 2-3 songs from their own careers with everyone performing and then do a mix of Wilbury tunes in second half.

 

My dream scenario would have been for all five Wilburys to be sat in a circle singing and playing guitars with Buster Sidebury accompanying them for the duration of a brilliant one-off show, if not a full tour. At certain points, they could even have introduced special guests such as Dave Edmunds or even Del Shannon, but that obviously needed to happen around the time of Vol. 1's release for Lefty to still be present. Sadly, we'll never get to hear the whole "family" in a live setting...

 

I think we have a new laziest Beatle - formerly John but now George

 

Petty also said George would get enthusiastic about the Wilburys playing live when they were sitting around having a drink or a smoke or whatever and then the next day George wouldn't be so keen on it once he'd sobered up

I don't think they'd need any extra musicians at all other than Keltner (and probably Jim Horn playing sax). Petty could play bass, George lead, Dylan acoustic rhythm, Lynne electric rhythm and keyboards. Maybe some "Wilburyized" versions of some classic Dylan/Petty/Harrison (I bet he'd balk at playing any of his old Beatles songs)/ELO material. Maybe some covers, and certainly the Vol 1 and 3 tunes. Coulda been a good gig...

 

Jeff sang "Give Me Love" at Concert for George, so I can imagine a duet of that.

 

I can imagine a lot of things... sigh... I also imagine it would have been great for Gretsch guitars!!

 

Was really hoping for a Wilburys set when I went to Bob fest in 92 at MSG, with at least 3 of them on the bill. Alas, no.

 

It is interesting to think what regular price tickets would have sold for in the mind of that promoter. This was before the Eagles in 1994 really started the trend of higher prices so would this tour presumably a couple of years earlier have been the first to do that? Whatever it turned out to be it would still be much cheaper than current prices and yes I would have definitely tried to see it. Although, it may not have been as good in actual execution as it is in theory.

 

If if if .....
If George wanted to tour , Eric Clapton's Band would have been up to.
If Bob wanted to tour, his bans would have worked
Tomm Petty's band would have worked too.
If George wanted to tour.

 

I assume that George did not know about how corrupt his Handmade Film company manager was at the time that he turned down the tour; it is interesting to think about what would have happened had he accepted the large amount of money and actually went on the Tour. Would he then have ever agreed to the Anthologies had he been in a good financial situation?

 

The revenue from a Wilburys tour definitely would have made a difference, I'm sure!

Probably not

 

I think they would have needed a dedicated keyboard/synth person. Maybe some female b/singers and most importantly Ray Cooper on percussion

 

Can't blame him....hammocks are great.

 

The way I picture it, the set would begin with Handle with Care, then they would play a few songs from each member - both solo and Wilburys songs - before finishing up with some group songs like She's My Baby and Wilbury Twist, and they would finish with End of the Line.

They would bring out guest musicians who worked with certain members - eg. Eric would play on some George songs, the Heartbreakers on Tom's songs, and Richard Tandy on Jeff's songs.

 

Benmont Tench? Gary Wright? Those would likely be Petty and Harrison's choices, at least.

Ray Cooper on percussion I could tolerate. Chick singers "shoo-wop-shoo-wop-wop"ing through everything like on Live In Japan? I think not...

 

Stevie could come out and duet with Tom on Stop Dragging My Heart Around. Or maybe George

 

Ray could be 7-Minute Wilbury. And yeah definitely no Shoo-Wop warblers.

 

I'll bet if they had toured they would have done the obvious hits and given everyone a tune or 2 to sing. But I doubt they would have played any of their solo material. I'll bet instead they would have played covers of songs from the 30s/40s/50s.

 

I had the displeasure of seeing Bob Dylan with Petty and the Heartbreakers as the backing band in the late 80's.., the most boring show I've ever witnessed in my life. I left before the first hour, too many stars on the stage all copping these stupid leans trying to out-cool each other. A Wilburys tour may have been different though, they should have kicked George out and did it without him.

 

I quite like that the Wilburys was what it was.....a little fun side project....no more.

Its like our generations Million Dollar Quartet.

And look at the cross pollination that occurred in that period...great albums where some/most contributed....Full Moon Fever, Armchair Theatre, Cloud Nine, She's A Mystery, Under The Red Sun.

 

And one of my favourites, Into the Great Wide Open.

 

I get the idea George had great fun with The Wilburys, but once the job started...it stopped. I can respect that after his tiredness of being a Beatle still in Anthology period. Paycheck would have been huge for Wilburys to continue, and Tour. That was never George's goal though.

As much as we fans would love.