ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wesley, Roy Jr., and Alex Orbison work tirelessly to protect and further their father’s legacy. Wesley, the eldest, is a seasoned songwriter and guitar player. His song “The Only One” (co-written with Craig Wiseman) appears on Roy Orbison’s multi-platinum album Mystery Girl. Roy Jr. is a singer and guitar player who works out of his own professional recording studio, the Pretty Woman Studio. He enjoys spending time with his beautiful bride and their son, Roy Orbison III. Alex, a drummer by trade, began his career in music publishing at the age of seventeen. As co-president of Still Working Music, along with his brother Roy, Alex has overseen several top ten songs and number one hits. All three brothers reside with their families in Nashville.

Jeff Slate is a songwriter and music journalist who regularly contributes to Esquire, Rolling Stone, and other publications. A lifelong fan of Roy Orbison, he recently contributed liner notes to The Ultimate Roy Orbison and the fiftieth-anniversary reissue of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He and his partner, Lynn, reside in New York City with their children.

MUSIC BIOGRAPHY

Roy Orbison Jr., Wesley Orbison, and Alex Orbison, with Jeff Slate

The Authorized Roy Orbison

Center Street

Hardcover, 978-1-4789-7655-4 (ebook and audio versions also available), 264 pages, $15.99

October 2017

Reviewed by Si Dunn

Texas native Roy Orbison remains a major name in popular music nearly thirty years after his untimely death at age 52 in 1988. His hit songs such as “Only the Lonely,” “Running Scared,” “Blue Bayou,” and “Oh, Pretty Woman” and his distinctive, wide-ranging voice continue to be heard around the world in recordings and movies.

This new book, written by Orbison’s sons (all in the music business), plus songwriter and veteran music journalist Jeff Slate, presents an “authorized” account of Orbison’s life, career, sudden death from a heart attack, and continued impact on the music world.

Orbison, a singer-songwriter-musician who was born in Vernon, Texas, and achieved his earliest stardom in the West Texas oil town of Wink, tried hard to keep much of his private life, including his marriages, divorces, and children, out of the limelight. But this entertaining, enlightening biography is rich with background details and many previously unpublished photographs from his home life, as well musical concerts and tours with other stars, including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and the Eagles, to name just a few.

Roy Orbison knew at age 5, in 1941, that he wanted to be a singer and started learning guitar soon after that. “When he was 10 years old, he saw Lefty Frizzell perform. It changed his life,” the authors note. At that time, Frizzell, a Corsicana native, was still struggling his way toward greater success as a country singer and songwriter. And young Orbison had heard him sing many times on the radio before getting to see him in person. “He had this technique which involved sliding syllables together that really blew me away,” Orbison later recalled.

After his family moved to Wink, Roy Orbison began performing at school assemblies and earning nickels and dimes by singing on the sidewalks in front of Wink’s drugstore and one of its small hotels. He and some school friends later formed a band and began playing at West Texas dances as the Wink Westerners and then as the Teen Kings while attending North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas) in Denton.

The book recounts how Orbison and his groups also won music contests and had local radio and TV shows in West Texas. And singer Johnny Cash and a local record shop owner, who had contacts in Memphis, helped Orbison and the Teen Kings land their first real record deal.

The Authorized Roy Orbison provides intriguing inside looks at the world of country, rockabilly and rock music. It explains how many of Orbison’s hits happened, how record labels battled each other for talent and sought new songs that could top the charts, and how musicians often helped each other climb the long ladder to fame, even as they endured the hard grind of concerts and tours in the U.S. and overseas.

Orbison’s musical talents, career highlights and impressive discography are central focuses within this important book. And people who helped him reach the top, including family and friends, get some spotlight, as well.

* * * * *