Trivia & Extras / Fun Facts

20 Traveling Wilburys Facts Most Fans Don't Know

1. The band's entire name comes from a studio mistake. Harrison and Jeff Lynne used to call any small recording error a "wilbury," shorthand for "we'll bury it in the mix," during the Cloud Nine sessions in 1987.

1. The first song they ever wrote together, "Handle With Care," is named after a shipping label. Harrison spotted a box marked "Handle With Care" sitting in Bob Dylan's garage while looking for a title.

1. Bob Dylan spent the first session manning a barbecue. Before he contributed a single lyric, Dylan was cooking for the rest of the band, who'd all gathered at his Malibu home.

1. Tom Petty joined because George Harrison left a guitar at his house. Harrison came back to retrieve it, and figured he might as well invite Petty along to the session too.

1. They almost called themselves the Trembling Wilburys. Jeff Lynne suggested swapping "trembling" for "traveling," and the name stuck.

1. George Harrison's wife Olivia filmed the band's arrival from the bushes. On the first day of recording at Dave Stewart's house, she hid outside with a camera just to capture all five of them showing up.

1. A full restaurant once went silent when the band walked in for dinner. An engineer on the sessions recalled the room falling quiet at a sushi spot in Encino when Dylan, Harrison, Orbison, Petty, and Lynne arrived together.

1. Dhani Harrison played Nintendo's Duck Hunt with Jakob Dylan during the Vol. 3 sessions. The two sons hung out upstairs while their famous fathers worked on the album downstairs.

1. The liner notes for Vol. 1 were written by a Monty Python member under a fake academic title. Michael Palin is credited as "Hugh Jampton, E.F. Norti-Bitz Reader in Applied Jacket."

1. Eric Idle wrote the Vol. 3 liner notes too, continuing the tradition.

1. There is no Traveling Wilburys Vol. 2. The band's second album was titled Vol. 3 as a deliberate joke; read the full explanation.

1. According to Jeff Lynne, the "Vol. 3" title came from George Harrison wanting to "confuse the buggers."

1. The Vol. 3 sessions took place at a rented house the band nicknamed "Camp Wilbury." It sat at the top of Coldwater Canyon in Bel Air.

1. Guitarist Gary Moore played on Vol. 3 under the alias "Ken Wilbury." He contributed the lead solo on "She's My Baby."

1. All five Traveling Wilburys have been individually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the band itself never has. See the full awards and legacy story.

1. The band directly inspired other "backyard supergroups." Warner Bros. executive Lenny Waronker specifically encouraged Ry Cooder to form Little Village after watching what the Wilburys did for Roy Orbison and Tom Petty's careers.

1. Their 2007 reissue box set outperformed Nirvana's on the charts, if not in sales. The Traveling Wilburys Collection debuted at a higher Billboard 200 position than Nirvana's With the Lights Out, though Nirvana's set sold more copies overall.

1. The "Wilbury Twist" video features Eric Idle and John Candy. Both actors appear attempting the song's entirely invented dance craze; read more on our Wilbury Twist page.

1. George Harrison once nursed Tom Petty through a cold with a homemade ginger root remedy during the recording of Petty's Full Moon Fever, produced alongside the Wilburys sessions.

1. Roy Orbison recorded a solo album at the same time as Vol. 1, and never got to hear it released. Mystery Girl came out the January after his death and became the best-selling record of his career.

Want the deep-dive version of any of these? Start with the full band history, or browse the Members section for each Wilbury's individual story.