“You’re Driving Me Crazy”: The Rock Singer Tom Petty Could Hardly Stand to Listen to, He Was That Good

When we think of outstanding rock ‘n’ roll vocalists, our minds often wander to powerhouse belters like Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant. But for Tom Petty, the rock singer who blew him away time and time again—to the point that it was almost difficult to listen to him—wasn’t the stereotypical “wailer” singer. Instead, this rock ‘n’ roll vocalist crooned with a darkly romantic, warbly vibrato that harkened back to his days as Elvis Presley’s contemporary in the late 1950s: Roy Orbison.

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Roy Orbison might have predated Tom Petty by a couple of decades, but the two rock icons began working closely with one another as Traveling Wilburys bandmates in the late 1980s. The group was a star-studded one, featuring Petty, Orbison, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne. The supergroup released their full-length debut, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, in October 1988, two months before Orbison’s death. From there, the group continued as a quartet, but Orbison’s influence wasn’t forgotten.

In a 1989 interview with Spin, Petty recalled how Orbison used to make everyone in the group starstruck—even though they were all very much stars in their own right. Moreover, Orbison hadn’t had nearly as many hits around that time as his bandmates. Nevertheless, his talent spoke for itself.

Tom Petty Said Listening to Roy Orbison Was Almost Difficult

On rare occasions, we’ll encounter people, places, and things in our lives that are almost too good to handle. The sheer extraordinariness of it can become overwhelming, and that certainly seemed to be the case for Traveling Wilburys as they listened to their bandmate, Roy Orbison, sing—or, at least, that’s what Tom Petty was going through at the time. During his 1989 interview with Spin, Petty asserted that Orbison “knew he was the best singer alive. God, he could sing.”

“When he’d sing during the Wilbury sessions, we’d all just look at each other with big eyes,” he continued. “Even if he was just sitting at a table working out a song and singing, we’d go, ‘Roy, quit it, you’re driving me crazy.’ He told us that he really felt invincible because he had the support of all these people, the way everyone loved him so much.”

Petty said he watched Orbison, who was far from the height of his fame in the 1960s, regain his confidence through Traveling Wilburys. Sadly, Orbison never got to see the full extent of how successful his work with the Wilburys became. “I wish he could’ve seen the success of that album,” Petty said. “Because if there ever was a guy who was going to dig it… You know, when someone dies, you always hear nice things about them. But Roy really was that way. A very special person.”

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