Not Alone Any More

‘Not Alone Any More’ is the fifth song on Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.

The song was primarily written by Jeff Lynne, with lead vocals by Roy Orbison.

It was just a thrill, really, to write a song with Roy Orbison. It was an ambition that I’d always had, and he came through, which was great.

He has got the best voice ever in pop music, so you can’t get in the way of him either. It’s a really tricky one. His voice is really big anyway, obviously you don’t want a weedy little backing, but it’s really hard to fit in with this great big voice and still have some oomph behind it.

One night I broke in, into the studio, to try this alternative chord pattern, because there was one particular one I just couldn’t come to terms with the way it was. And just as an alternative I put this Telecaster on and was playing these other chords, and pulled out all the other stuff. Everybody else arrived, and it was this new thing with the same tune but different chords. And they all loved it.

I put all I had into the project, but the other guys had visions of what I should sound like, or what I should sing, and things like that. So we didn’t question each other.