An Intimate, Never-Before-Seen Look at Roy Orbison's Life
The late musician's three sons offer a closer look at the rock and roll icon in a new biography.
Roy Orbison was a rock and roll icon responsible for some of the most legendary recordings in the modern American songbook. His haunting, ethereal voice was one of the most indelible sounds of the 20th century—a voice lost to us when Orbison died at the peak of his career at 52. A new biography, out Tuesday, seeks to return him to the mainstream. Written by his sons Wesley, Roy Jr., and Alex (along with Esquire contributor Jeff Slate), The Authorized Roy Orbison offers an intimate portrait of the musician, and it features over 300 photographs of Orbison. Here we offer a sampling of the never-before-seen images of the rock and roll superstar in his more personal, quiet moments.
Roy getting ready to go on the road, at home in Hendersonville, TN, May 1961.
Roy & Barbara on their wedding day in Madison, TN, March 25, 1969.
Film still, Roy Orbison & Friends: A Black & White Night, Roy Orbison & Bruce Springsteen during the guitar solo of “Down the Line,” September 30, 1987.
Roy Orbison in concert, May 15, 1987, at the Front Row Theatre in Highland Heights, Ohio- the same venue where he would perform his last concert only a year and a half later.
Roy and his younger brother, Sammy, waiting to board the tour bus in Nashville, TN.
Roy singing “Only the Lonely,” the opening song of his historic Black & White Night Concert.
Roy Orbison & Claudette aboard their boat named for Claudette. Hendersonville, TN, 1961.
Dynamic songwriting duo, Joe Melson & Roy Orbison, inside Roy’s Hendersonville, TN, home in May 1961.
T Bone Burnett, Roy Orbison, and David Lynch meet at the Ocean Way studios in Hollywood, CA to re-record “In Dreams” for the upcoming Virgin LP, and single, also titled In Dreams, April 20, 1987.
Roy Orbison as photographed by Sheila Rock, 1987.
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